Question

The number of significant figures in 10500 is:
A.Three
B.Four
C.Five
D.Two

Answer 1

Hint: Significant numbers are used to depict the accuracy and precision in data. It can be determined from the five rules that are commonly used in the scientific field.

Complete step by step answer:
The rules to determine the significant digits are given below:
All non-zero digits are significant.Zeros between non-zero digits are significant.
A trailing zero or final zero in the right of the decimal portion only are significant.
Leading zeros are not significant.Trailing zeros without decimal points are not significant.
For a number in scientific notation: \[{\text{Y x 1}}{{\text{0}}^{\text{x}}}\], all digits comprising Y will be significant by the above given rules; "10" and "x" are not significant.
In the given question, the given number is 10500.
The zero between non zero digits is significant but the zeros that are repeating after 5 are not significant since they are called trailing zeros.
Hence, the number of significant figures in 10500 is three.

So, the correct option is A.

Additional information:
 In case of operations like multiplication or division performed, the final answer should have the same number of significant numbers which will be the least number of significant numbers given in the question. In case of operations like addition and subtraction performed, the final answer should have the same number of decimal places which will be the least number of decimal places given in the question. Hence, significant numbers are not considered in the final result like multiplication or division operation.

Note:
The leading zeros are zeros occurring to the right of the decimal point which are not considered as significant zeros. The captive zeros are zeros between the non-zero digits; these captive zeros are significant. The trailing zeros are zeros that are occurring at the end and are not significant.