4.3.1 Rounding of Reported Data
When a number is obtained by calculations, its accuracy depends on the accuracy of the number used in the calculation. To limit numerical errors, an extra significant figure is retained during calculations, and the final answer rounded to the proper number of significant figures (see next section for discussion of significant figures).
The following rules should be used:
• If the extra digit is less than 5, drop the digit.
• If the extra digit is greater than 5, drop it and increase the previous digit by one.
• If the extra digit is five, then increase the previous digit by one if it is odd; otherwise do not change the previous digit.
4.3.2 Significant Figures
Significant figures (or significant digits) are used to express, in an approximate way, the precision or uncertainty associated with a reported numerical result. In a sense, this is the most general way to express “how well” a number is known. The correct use of significant figures is important in today’s world, where spreadsheets, handheld calculators, and instrumental digital readouts are capable of generating numbers to almost any degree of apparent precision, which may be much different than the actual precision associated with a measurement. A few simple rules will allow us to express results with the correct number of significant figures or digits. The aim of these rules is to ensure that the final result should never contain any more significant figures than the least precise data used to calculate it. This makes intuitive as well as scientific sense: a result is only as good as the data that is used to calculate it (or more popularly, “garbage in, garbage out”).