Significant Figures in Mixed Operations

For more examples and practice, check out this video!
• More Significant Figur...
What happens when you have a calculation that involves both addition/subtraction and multiplication/division. How do you keep track of your significant figures for more complex mathematical operations? When should you round your answer when doing a multi-step calculation? We will go step by step through several examples where we mix up addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I will show you how to keep track of your rules and when and how you should round your answers.

[@guitardunce7571]

Excellently explained and clarified. I'm doing a subject at the moment where this is getting introduced, and the lecturer consistently fails to explain with examples as to how these rules are applied. Really good work.

[@ChemHelpASAP]

Sig figs seem so simple, but they can be very tough when put into practice. I am glad this helped!

[@dhillondhesi7289]

Amazing lady, thank you for being a competent teacher!!!!

[@ChemHelpASAP]

I am glad it helped! Sig figs are tough; it takes time and practice to really figure them out.

[@francescadavis3913]

Thank you! Reviewing how to do significant figures in mixed operations and this clarified completely!

[@ChemHelpASAP]

Fantastic! I am so glad you found it helpful!

[@rickygelabert6558]

Superb video, it helps me to remember all the rules perfectly. Thanks a lot

[@ChemHelpASAP]

I am so glad you found it helpful! It is tough to keep all the rules straight in mixed operations.

[@nimratk2196]

Thank you so much!!! This made it so much easier!!

[@ChemHelpASAP]

Wonderful! I am so glad it helped!

[@benw8416]

i love you, first week of chem and this help me alot

[@ChemHelpASAP]

I am so glad you found it helpful! Please let me know what other topics you would like to see. If you want more sig fig work, I just did a live stream with more examples. I am here for you!

[@sbarb65]

This is amazing thank you so much!

[@ChemHelpASAP]

You are very welcome! Glad it helped!

[@deliveringIdeas]

Thank you ma'm.

[@ChemHelpASAP]

You are welcome! Thanks for watching.

[@Youngballer739]

Thanks makes sense now

[@ChemHelpASAP]

I am so glad it helped clarify! I also have another sig fig in mixed operations video if you want to see more examples. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGevo4qkjKuHoJo

[@comamiday462]

good afternoon, I have a question... 4.2500/24.02 is 0.1769358868 but your round off and the same with 51.67/30.90 that is 1.328277635...and the final result will be 1.505213522, is that okay?

[@ChemHelpASAP]

I am not sure I fully understand your question. Are you asking if it is ok that your calculator gave you more decimal places than my calculator? If that is the case, I would say it doesn't matter because you still need to round to the third decimal place in the final answer. So I can write as many decimal places as I would like before rounding, but once I round to the correct number of sig figs, I am always going to round to the third decimal place which will give the same answer. If you want to see more examples of sig figs in mixed operations, you can check them out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGevo4qkjKuHoJo

[@jojoo_aah8072]

thank you.

[@ChemHelpASAP]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Maria-kq4bv]

Thank you

[@ChemHelpASAP]

You are very welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@bakihanma644]

why did it go from 10^23 to 10^22?

[@ChemHelpASAP]

I divided 6.02214 x 10^23 by 56.10564. I simplified the fraction.

[@bakihanma644]

@@ChemHelpASAP I still don't understand... Is that a rule that when you divide you lower the exponent?

[@ChemHelpASAP]

It's less about the exponent and more about the mathematical operation. I suggest you think about 6.02214 x 10^23 as one number with many zeros after the six. It may also be helpful to review how scientific notation works. This video may help! kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5m7ioOJebGajas Edit- zeros after the six, not before.

[@bakihanma644]

@@ChemHelpASAP I watched the video it's helpful but still doesn't explain my problem. 6.02214 has one number in front of the decimal so there should be no need to move the decimal anywhere if we follow what the rules in the video you linked say about scientific notation.

[@ChemHelpASAP]

You are correct that any time a number is in scientific notation, there should be one nonzero digit in front of the decimal. But think about the problem in a different way. Consider this problem: 6.0 x 10^4 divided by 200. This equals 3.0 x 10^2. Why did the exponent decrease? Because another way to write this problem is 60,000/200. This equals 300. It's not about the exponent, it is about the numbers themselves. You are simply writing them in scientific notation. 602,214,000,000,000,000,000,000/56.10564 = 10,733,600,000,000,000,000,000

[@jaredingles6893]

Why is it so hard for people describing sig figs at the end of the calculation to say WHY THEY GOT THE NUMBER OF SIG FIGS!!! geeez!