Ncert Exercises & Solutions

1.16 What do you mean by significant figures?

Significant figures are those meaningful digits that are known with certainty. ie, if 15.6 mL is the result of an experiment, then 15 is certain while 6 is uncertain, and the total number of significant figures are 3.

Hence, significant figures are defined as the total number of digits in a number including the last digit that represents the uncertainty of the result.