if the zeroes of 0.000005 is not significant then might as well throw em all in the trash and put it as 5
So, 0.000005 is = 5 which is obviously wrong
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Can someone explain to me what perspective I need to understand them? And also why my mindset is wrong
In: Mathematics
When you’re dealing with significant digits, the number of zeros *after* the last non-zero digit indicate how precise your number is.
In other words, 0.5 grams might mean that you actually have anywhere from 0.45 to 0.54 grams. The scale you used to measure it isn’t precise enough for you to know for certain. If you have 0.50 grams, however, then it means that you have somewhere between 0.495 grams and 0.504 grams. You have a better scale in this case, so you have a more precise measurement.
When you start adding/multiplying numbers with significant digits, you have to be careful, because your result can only be as precise as your inputs. In other words, even if you have an extremely precise watch, you can’t know very precisely how fast something is moving if you can’t measure the distance it’s travelling precisely. Likewise, if you can’t measure the weight of something to more than the nearest kg, then you can’t say that it’s gone from 5kg to 5.0005 kg because you added a 0.5 g weight to it. You didn’t know that it was 5.0000kg in the first place.
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