Chapter SR9, Problem 19P

Solution

To perform the calculation $\text{260 pints of milk}÷\text{106 students}$ and write the answer with appropriate number of significant digits.

  $2.5\text{ pints per student}$

Given:

The expression, $\text{260 pints of milk}÷\text{106 students}$ .

Concept Used:

Significant digits

• All nonzero digits are significant.
• All zeros that appear between two nonzero digits are significant.
• For a decimal, all zeros that appear after the last nonzero digit are significant.
• The number of significant digits in the result of basic algebraic operations between two numbers is as many significant digits as the least number of significant digits in any of the numbers involved.

Calculation:

Note that there are 2 significant digits in 260 and 3 significant digits in 106. Since the number of students is exact, consider the 2 significant digits to the pints of milk. So, the final answer should have 2 significant digits as shown below

  $\begin{array}{c}260÷106=2.4528\\ =2.5\text{ pints per student}\end{array}$

Thus, the simplified expression with appropriate significant digits is $2.5\text{ pints per student}$ .