What are the significant figures rules?

    0

    If there are any trailing zeros after the decimal point they (all of the trailing zeros) are significant but if they are all before the decimal point then you can’t tell (different conventions are sometimes used in this case).
    Leading zeros:
    0000343
    (Not a common way to express a number but the zeros are not significant.)
    0.000343
    Standard notation; still not significant
    Internal Zeros:
    3.404
    304
    30.04
    All zeros are significant
    Trailing Zeros:
    3.400
    3400.00
    All zeros are significant
    340
    This is the ambiguous case. Sometimes the convention is used that if a decimal is shown the zeros are all counted as significant:
    340.
    But that is just a convention and may not always apply.
    To remove the ambiguity the number really should be expressed in where all zeros (the x10 factor doesn’t count) are significant.
    ##3.4 xx10^2##
    ##3.40 xx10^2##
    Note: when a number is expressed in scientific notation there is one non-zero digit followed by the decimal followed by other digits so there are never any leading zeros and all zeros come after the decimal point so they are always counted significant.
    For further help please see my video:

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