Leave the digit the same if the next digit is less than 5 (this is called rounding down) but increase it by 1 if the next digit is 5 or more (this is called rounding up). The rounded value must be a ...
Suppose I am working on a problem and I wish to calculate the density of something. I measure the mass to be m = 24.5 grams and the volume is V = 10 cm 3. In this case the density would be: ALERT!
The first two significant figures are 5 and 2. As the next digit is 4 the 2 stays as it is. Therefore 5246 rounds to 5200 to 2 significant figures. (Notice that we must put in zeros to keep the number ...