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Topic 3

The document discusses the concepts of approximation and significant figures, explaining how to round numbers to a specified degree of accuracy. It outlines the rules for identifying significant digits and differentiates between rounding off and truncation. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of maintaining significant figures in calculations to avoid errors.

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7 views3 pages

Topic 3

The document discusses the concepts of approximation and significant figures, explaining how to round numbers to a specified degree of accuracy. It outlines the rules for identifying significant digits and differentiates between rounding off and truncation. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of maintaining significant figures in calculations to avoid errors.

Uploaded by

legendarygaming7895
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Topic 3: Approxima on and

Es ma on

Notes:
Approximation:
1. To make an approximation means to round off a
number to a required degree of accuracy according to
the set of instructions given.

To give an example:

(i) A given place value (like hundreds, thousands)

(ii) A given number of decimal places (like 2 d.p. / 4


d.p.)

(iii) A given number of significant figures (s.f.)

2. To round off a number to a specified place value or


decimal place, revise your Primary 5 topic of Rounding
Off!

3. A number should only be rounded off from its original


value, not from the rounded off value.

To give an example:

I rounded off 21 758 (to the nearest hundreds) to 21


800. I cannot then round off 21 800.
Significant Figures:
4. Significant figures are the number of digits used to
denote an exact value to a specified degree of accuracy
(like rounding off)

5. How to identify significant digits?

 All non-zero digit(s) are significant.


e.g. 56 (2 s.f.), 34.56 (4 s.f.)

 Zero(s) between non-zero digits are significant.


e.g. 403 (3 s.f.), 6.002 (4 s.f.)

 Zero(s) that come before the first non-zero digit


are not significant.
e.g. 0.00021 (2 s.f.), 0.001023 (4 s.f.)

 Zero(s) following a non-zero digit after the


decimal point are significant.
e.g. 0.50 (2 s.f.), 2.800 (4 s.f.)

 Zero(s) following a non-zero digit in a whole


number can or cannot be significant, depending
on the estimation made, e.g. 56700 can be either 3
s.f., 4 s.f., or even 5 s.f..

6. When solving problems, the value in the intermediate


steps should be given 4 significant figures to avoid a
rounding error.
Rounding Off VS Truncation
7. Calculators might not always give the exact answer as
the number of digits stored and used for calculating the
answer depends on the capacity of the calculator.
Sometimes, you might have an issue with figuring out
whether the calculator rounded it off, or simply
truncated it.

8. Rounding Off is to make a number change to a


required degree of accuracy.

To give an example:
_
0.6 = 0.666… (round off to 5th significant) = 0.66667

9. Truncation is simply cutting off the digits you do not


want without going through the rounding off process.

To give a similar example like above:


_
0.6 = 0.666 (truncated value for 5 d.p.) = 0.66666 (last
d.p. not rounded to 7)

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