Question

A student has measured the length of a wire equal to 0.04580 m. This value of length has the number of significant figures equal to
A. Five
B. Four
C. Six
D. None of these

Answer 1

Hint: Before going to start this problem let us understand about significant figures. The term significant figure is defined as the number of important single digits (from 0 to 9) in the coefficient of an expression in scientific notation. The number of significant figures is also an expression that indicates the confidence or precision with which an engineer or scientist states a quantity.

Complete step by step solution:
In order to find the significant figures, there are some rules. Consider the number 0.04580. Here, if there are zeros in the starting of the number, we don’t consider that, therefore the number of significant figures is 4580 that is four. Hence, the number of significant figures equals four.

Hence, option B is the correct answer.

Additional information: These significant figures are used to establish the number which is presented in the form of digits and these carry a meaningful representation of numbers. The significant digits are also used often instead of figures. We can find the number of significant digits by counting all the values starting from the first non-zero digit located on the left.

Note:Here, in this problem it is important to remember that when we are going to find the significant figures in the given problem or in a number given. We need to count the digits in such a way that, if a number contains zero in the starting, we have to eliminate it means we should not count. Suppose in the given question if the zeros are present in the middle of the number including that we have to count.