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MATH STATIONS:
1. Significant Digits
2. Scientific
Notation
3. Unit Conversions

MATH STATIONS: 1. Significant Digits //

2. Scientific Notation // 3. Unit Conversions
Directions:
1. Take notes on each topic in your notebook.
- include: titles/headings, notes, examples
2. Dont rush, make sure you understand everything. Take
good notes. Write down/ask questions.
3. Answer the questions at the end of each section

1. Significant Digits

w and why to round

Did you know that your calculator occasionally lies to you?
It can mislead you, and it's a good idea to keep this in mind.

Exact vs. Approximate Numbers

Some numbers are exact, and some are not.
Exact numbers are counted or defined. 3 stars, 24 students... 60
seconds in a minute...
Approximate numbers are obtained by measurement. Your speed is
approximately 52 mph, your weight is approximately 150.3 lbs.

No matter how carefully you make a measurement, there will always be some
degree of uncertainty to it. All measurements have limited precision. You can
probably measure time with a stopwatch to the nearest 0.1 second. The
Olympics can measure time to the nearest 0.001 second.
Even if your stopwatch gave you a reading to the 0.001 second, you would
know that there was no way you measured time that accurately

Why are significant digits important

It is important to use significant digits when reporting
numbers and to follow their rules when making
calculations so that numbers dont appear more
accurate than they are, or more accurate than the
equipment used to measure them are capable of
measuring to.
If you can only measure time accurately to 0.1
seconds, then you have no business reporting any
more digits than that.

Significant Digits Rules

1) All nonzero digits are significant

123456789

2) All zeros between significant

digits are significant

1408
250000009
1408000

3) All zeros which are both to the

right of the decimal point and to
the right of all non-zero significant
digits are themselves significant.

33.00000
4.70
0.000300

Practice:

Do a-c.
To do
d and e
you will need to
use scientific
notation

1. Sig.Fig.
practice
solutions

2.

1.
a.) 4
b.) 4
c.) 2
d.) 2
e.) 2
f.) 3

a.) 8 x 1014 or
800,000,000,000,000
b.) 8.3 x 1014 or
830,000,000,000,000
c.) 8.27 x 1014 or
827,000,000,000,000
d.) 8.270 x 1014
e.) 8.2700 x 1014

Significant Digits in Calculations

The idea is this: Suppose you measure a block of wood. The length is
5.6 inches, the width is 4.4 inches, and the thickness is 1.7 inches, at
least as best you can tell from your tape measure. To find the volume,
you would multiply these three numbers, to get 41.888 in3. But can you
really claim to have measured the volume of that block of wood to the
nearest thousandth of a cubic inch?? No! Each of your measurements
was accurate to two significant digits: your tape was marked off in tenths
of inches, and you wrote down the closest tenth of an inch that you
could see. So you cannot claim this much accuracy. You can only claim
two significant digits in your answer: the volume of the block is 42 in3,
approximately.

Multiplication/Division Rules
Round to the least number of significant digits.
16.235 0.217 5 = 17.614975
= 20

If 5 were an exact number, then it would have infinite significant

digits: 5.0000000000.., and this calculation would then be
rounded to 3 significant digits.

Addition/Subtraction Rules
Round to the least accurate place.
13.214
234.6
7.0350
+
6.38___
261.2290
= 261.2

1247
134.5
450
+
78___
1909.5
=1910

Sig.Digits wrap up questions:

1. Why are significant digits important?
2. If different people make the same measurements and
calculations, should they always have the same number of
significant digits and the same digits?

2. Scientific Notation
Earths mass
= 5,970,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg

Scientific Notation
For very large or very small numbers it is often simpler to use
exponents to report numbers. Scientists call this formatting of
numbers scientific notation.
Exponents are shorthand for repeated multiplication. For
example, you can write 5x5x5 as 53, where the exponent 3 tells
you to multiply 5 by itself three times.
10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x
10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x10x = 1020. Here the exponent 20
tells you to multiply 10 by itself twenty times.

To write a number in scientific notation, break it into a digit term and an exponential
term. One digit goes before the decimal point (to the left of the decimal).
The digit term indicates the number of significant digits, and the exponential term
places the decimal point (shows the scale of the number).

46600000 = 4.66 x10x10x10x10x10x10x10

= 4.66 x 107
0.00466 = 4.66 10 10 10 = 4.66 x 10-3
In this number, there are 3 significant figures. The zeros are not significant; they are only
placeholders.

Practice:

1. Sci.Not. proper
form practice

solutions

1.) 5 x 10-3
2.) 5.05 x 103
3.) 8 x 10-4
4.) 1 x 103
5.) 1 x 106

1.) 1,500
2.) 0.0015
3.) 0.0375
4.) 375
5.) 220,000

Multiplication/Division in Sci. Notation

(x3)(x4)
= (xxx)
(xxxx)

Note that x7 also equals

x(3+4).

This demonstrates the

=
first exponent rule:
xxxxxxx Whenever you multiply
two numbers with the
7
=x
same base, you can add
the exponents.
(x5)/(x2) Note that x3 also equals
=
x(5-2).
(xxxxx)/
(xx)
Whenever you divide two
numbers with the same
= xxx
base, you can subtract
the exponents.
3
=x

Example:
(2.6 105) (9.2 1013)
= (2.6)(105)(9.2)(1013)
= (2.6)(9.2)(108)
= 23.92 x 10-8
= 2.392 x 10-7

be careful with
this step right
here

Practice:

2. Multiplication/
Division practice

solutions
a.) 8.6e14
b.) 9.0e1
c.) 12.00e-3 or 1.2e-2
d.) 6.5e-1
e.) 9.0e-5
f.) 1.5e3

Scientific Notation wrap up questions

1. What is the purpose of scientific notation?
2. There are many forms of notation (dialects) for numbers:
standard notation(43700), scientific notation(4.37e4), and
engineering notation--which uses exponents in multiples of 3 (43.7e3).
Do you agree or disagree that math is a language? Why.

Partner Practice
- Work with someone you have not worked
with but think you might work well with
- Do the practice problems together
- Check that your interpretations are
consistent
- Refer to your notes and previous examples
Write neatly.
Make your commas and periods clearly different.

How many sig figs?

1) 2.0300
2) 02.0300
3) 9,000,000
Rewrite in scientific notation
4) 98,700,000
5) 0.00240
Solve. Report answers in scientific notation and with proper #significant figures
6) (1.2 x 1010) x ( 2 x 102) =
7) (1.2 x 1010) / ( 2 x 102) =
8) (5.555 x 105) / ( 1.11 x 10-4) =

3. Unit Conversions
measure just about anything in just about any unit.
A 100 carat
diamond

A dozen
eggs

10 mm = 1 cm

A unit is a quantity used as a standard of

measurement.
We can measure quantities in different
units. So.. we can use miles to measure a
distance, or feet, or inches, or
centimeters.
Because the lengths of these units are
standardized, they are defined, they are
forever. We can define a mile in terms of
feet (1 mile = 5,280 feet), a foot in terms of
inches, inches in terms of centimeters...
Because these units are standardized, we
can make conversions between different
units. If we know a distance in miles, we
can use unit conversions to figure out
what that distance is in a different unit.

Earth-Moon distance = 384,400 km

We can convert this distance to miles,
inches, centimeters...
And using the average length of a step,
we can measure this distance in steps.

Unit Conversion example:

We measure the time it takes for
the Earth to make one revolution
around the Sun as 1 year.

1 year

? days

? minutes

How can we convert this measurement of time in

years to a measurement in days or in minutes?

Unit Conversion example:

1 year

? days

There are approximately 365.24 days in a year.

365.24 days = 1 year.
If you multiply any number by 1, it does not change its
value.
12 x 1 = 12. 100 x 1 = 100. 123456789 x 1 = 123456789.
A unit conversion factor is a ratio that equals 1.
365.24 days = 1 year, 365.24
so we can
dayswrite a unit conversion
factor for years and days as:1 year
= 1
Using this unit conversion factor, you can then convert any
quantity of years into an equivalent number of days.

unit conversion
factor:

365.24 days
1 year

1 year

#days in 1 year:
1 year x

? days

? minutes

You are converting 1 year #days

365.24 days
1 year

365.24 days

#days in 5 years:
days

days
5 years 365.24
x
1 year

= 5 x 365.24 = 1826.2

1000 days in #years

_ 1 year___
1000 days x 365.24 days = 1000/365.24 = 2.73792574745 =

**** Be careful with

SIG FIGS
The # days in a year
is a measurement
The # hours in a day
and # minutes in an
hour are
defined/exact and
therefore have
infinite precision.

2.7379 years

1 year

? days

? minutes

#minutes in 1 year:
1 year x 365.24 days x
1 year

24 hours_x
1 day

60 minutes_
1 hour

= 525945.6
= 525950 minutes

Practice:
1. How many seconds are there in 1 hour?

USE PROPER SIG. FIGS.

USE PROPER SCIENTIFIC
NOTATION WHEN NECESSARY.

Hint: You are converting 1 hour seconds

2. How many seconds are there in 1 day?

3. How many seconds are there in 1 year?
4. How many minutes are there in 1 year?
5. How many centimeters are there in 1 foot?

(1 inch = 2.54 cm)

6. How many centimeters are there in 1 kilometer? (1 kilometer = 1,000

meters.
1 meter = 100 cm)

Unit Conversion Practice

1.) 3,600 seconds
2.) 86,400 seconds
3.) 31,536,000 seconds
4.) 525,600 minutes
5.) 30.48 cm
6.) 100,000 or 105 cm

Challenge Practice:

USE PROPER SIG. FIGS.

USE PROPER SCIENTIFIC
NOTATION WHEN NECESSARY.

A car is driving 60 miles per hour (mph).

How many meters/second (m/s) is this?
(1 mile = 1.6 kilometers)

Number Conversions:
Advanced Unit Conversion
A second type of unit conversion can be made to
convert a quantity into a different type of unit.
For example: You can measure a distance in a unit of length
(km, mi, cm, mm), and convert this distance into units of time
(year, day, second).

Like basic unit conversions, number conversions

between different types of units also require unit
conversion factors.
But, these unit conversion factors do not = 1.
They are sometimes defined (density water = 1 g/cm3)
and sometimes measured (speed in m/s.
oxygen/person).

During the failed Apollo 13 flight,

mission control calculated the
astronauts return voyage in
distance, time, fuel, oxygen, and
carbon dioxide.
They used conversion factors to
make these number
conversions.

(just for fun)

Practice:

USE PROPER SIG. FIGS.

USE PROPER SCIENTIFIC
NOTATION WHEN NECESSARY.

1. It takes an airplane approximate 5.5 hours to fly from NY to California. If an

airplanes speed is 893 km/h, what is the distance between NY and California?
***hint: you are converting 5.5 hours ---> kilometers
2. Average walking speed = 1.4 m/s. How long would it take you to walk 1
kilometer?
*3. An Arizona iced tea costs $1. If you buy 5 Arizonas/week, 44 weeks/year,
how much will you spend on Arizonas in 4 years? (you are converting 4 years into $ for
Arizonas)

Unit Conversion Practice

1.) 4911.5 km
2.) 714.2857. = 710 seconds
= 12 minutes

3.) $880

Vocabulary: Space units

1. lightyear - (lyr) distance travelled
by light in one year. 9.4607 x 1012 km.

run for 1 year

2. astronomical unit - (au) the

average Earth-Sun distance.
Approximately 149,597,871 km.

for your reference:

Metric Unit Prefixes

GB = gigabytes
(109 bytes)

Centipedes ~100 legs

Millipedes ~ 1,000 legs
NOTE: the prefix for 100
should be hecto, and for
1,000 should be kilo.
I dont know why we didnt
decide to call these
hectopedes instead.

Names of
large
numbers