Significant figures and unit conversion

Significant figures and unit conversion 2

1. Significant figures

Before getting into anything else, I would first like you to look at the rules of significant
figures

1.1. All non zero numbers are significant

EX:
123 has three significant figures.
1.23 has three significant figures.
1189 has four significant figures.

1.2. Are zeros significant?

Zeros are significant in some cases and not significant in other cases.
• If zeros are located between non zero digits they are significant.
EX:
100004 has six significant figures.
12.002 has five significant figures.
• Zeros at the end of a number is significant only if the number consists of a decimal
point.
EX:
123.640 has six significant figures.
1230 has three significant figures.
1230. has four significant figures.
• Zeros to the left of a nonzero digit won’t count at all.
EX:
.00001 has only one significant figure.
.000000033 has two significant figures.

2. Multiplication/Division/Addition/Substraction rule

When we multiply/divide/add/substract any numbers, choose the one with lowest

significant figures and the result have to be written in such a way that it contains
only significant figures corresponds to the lowest one.
EX:
22.3 ∗ 111.3
If this is the problem. We can see that
22.3 has three significant figures and 111.3 has four significant figures. This means
lowest is three significant figures, so that write your result in three significant figures.
22.3 ∗ 111.3 =2481.99
Significant figures and unit conversion 3

The answer has to be converted to three significant figures. This means:

22.3 ∗ 111.3 = 2.48 ∗ 105

3. Units

If we need to calculate a physical quantity, it should be written in a way that numerical

value is followed by a unit corresponding to that physical quantity. The idea is that
units are mandatory for all physical quantities.
The seven fundamental physical quantities include:
(i) Length
(ii) Mass
(iii) Time
(iv) Temperature
(v) Current
(vi) Amount
(vii) Luminosity
All other physical quantities are derived from the above seven.
For example:
Area of a square of side length of L = L2

3.1. SI system of units

There are so many systems of units. In different systems units are different. But we can
relate those units and that is called by the name unit conversion. I will get into them
later. Below table corresponds to the SI system of units.

Once we calculate the numerical values of a physical quantity, we need to consider

thier units also. The very simple trick to find the unit of a physical quantity is to do
same operation on units also.
I will show you an example.
EX: The height of a rectangular box is given by 2m, length is given by 1m and
width is given by 3m. Find it’s volume?
ANS:
Significant figures and unit conversion 4

Height, H = 2m
Length, L = 1m
Width, W = 3m
Volume of the box, V
V = HLW

= (2m) ∗ (1m) ∗ (3m)

= (2 ∗ 1 ∗ 3) ∗ (m ∗ m ∗ m)

= 6 ∗ m3

6m3
The above one is a simple example. But we can use the same trick for any
complecated problems. The idea is to do the same mathematical operation on units
also.

3.2. SI prefixes and unit conversion

3.2.1. SI prefixes Another issues you might be dealing while doing physics problems
is about symbols appearing as prefixes to units. Once you see a new symbol prefix to
your actual SI unit, that ,means you are dealing with a different system of units other
than SI. For example, if I change previous problem as below.
EX: The height of a rectangular box is given by 2hm, length is given by 1hm and
width is given by 3m. Find it’s volume?
ANS:
Given
Height, H = 2hm
Length, L = 1hm
Width, W = 3m
Since height and length are in a unit with different prefix, we need to convert them
into m by looking at the table below.
We have from the table, 1hm = 102 m
So instead of hm, we can write as:
Height, H = 2 ∗ 102 m
Length, L = 1 ∗ 102 m
Width, W = 3m
Thus the volume of the box, V
V = HLW
Significant figures and unit conversion 5

= 2 ∗ 102 m ∗ 1 ∗ 102 m ∗ (3m)

= 2 ∗ 102 ∗ 1 ∗ 102 ∗ 3 ∗ (m ∗ m ∗ m)

= 60000 ∗ m3

60000m3
This is applicable for all prefixes in the table given below.

I generally recommend to follow SI system as it is internationally recognized. But

it’s not essential to use the same. You can express your final answer in any systems.
That’s upto us. But the idea is that, once a parameter associated to a problem is in
one system, stick on the same and convert every other parameters to it. In the previous
example, I converted all parameters( length, height and width) to meter, which is SI
system. But that is not necessary. You can convert every parameters to hecto as below
and your final unit will be hm3 . Look below example which is a variation of previous
problem.
EX: The height of a rectangular box is given by 2hm, length is given by 1hm and
width is given by 3m. Find it’s volume?
ANS:
Given
Height, H = 2hm
Length, L = 1hm
Width, W = 3m
Since height and length are in a unit with different prefix, we need to convert them
into m by looking at the table below.
We have from the table, 1hm = 102 m
This means
1m = 1012 hm = 10−2 hm
So instead of hm, we can write as:
Height, H = 2hm
Length, L = 1hm
Significant figures and unit conversion 6

Width, W = 3 ∗ 10−2 hm
Thus the volume of the box, V
V = HLW

= (2hm) ∗ (1hm) ∗ 3 ∗ 10−2 hm

= 2 ∗ 1 ∗ 3 ∗ 10−2 ∗ (hm ∗ hm ∗ hm)

= 6 ∗ 10−2 hm3

3.2.2. Unit conversion Above I have explained how to convert units, if it is given a
different system of units, which we can identify by looking at prefixes. But there are
some other systems, which we can’t detect by prefixes. But that is also simple. Just
look at the appendix of any stadard textbooks to get conversion factor. I can explain it
through an example below.
EX:
Find out the speed given by 10mi/h in m/s
ANS:
Here we need to write two conversion factors. One for miles(unit of length) and the
other for hour(unit of time).
1mi = 1609m
1h = 60 ∗ 60s = 3600s
(Look at the Appendix C of Essential University physics Vol 1)
Speed = 10mi/h
= 10 ∗ 1609m/3600s
= 4.5m/s

4. Scientific notation

It is always recommended to express your answers in scientific notation. You need to

write your results as per the rules I mentioned in section 1.
1234562 can be write as:
1 ∗ 106 when we round to one significant figure.
1.2 ∗ 106 when round to two significant figures.
1.23 ∗ 106 when round to three significant figures.
Also we can write as:
12.3 ∗ 105 when round to three sigificant figures.
There are so many ways to write. You have to read all rules I stated to know, which
you should follow.