Significant Figures
Rounding to a significant figure is a useful skill to understand and learn. Significant
figures are all around you. For example when Apple announces its profits, they are
rounding the number to one or two significant figures to make it clearer.
Imagine your company’s profit for the year is:
$8,329,303,304
You would round that to maybe 2 significant figures when announcing profits to the
media:
$8,329,303,304
$8,300,000,000
The 8 and the 3 are considered the most significant numbers (important). If the third
digit was a 5 or greater, then that would affect the second digit, just like when
rounding decimal places:
$8,359,303,304
$8,400,000,000
Angry Birds!
Copy and complete the table below into your books (the first line is an example).
Gather scores from the game Angry Birds, then round them to 1 and 2 significant
figures:
Game
1
2
3
4
5
6
Score
58056
1 Signficant Figure
60000
2 Significant Figures
58000