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In Brown, Theodore E.; LeMay, H. Eugene; Bursten, Bruce E.; Murphy, Catherine; Woodward, Patrick; Stoltzfus, Matthew E.. Chemistry: The Central Science (Page 35). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition, an assignment is:

Make the following conversions: $\pu{2500^\circ F}$ to $\pu{K}$

The answer given is $\pu{1644 K}$ but I say it's $\pu{1600 K}$. What is the correct answer?

Gaurang Tandon
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eromod
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1 Answers1

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It is ambiguous. 2500 can either be 2.5E3 or 2.500E3. The number 2506 would clearly be 2.506E3. Changes of last two digits being zeros randomly is 1%. If this is a home question or on a test then work the answer to 4 figures state that the problems seems ambiguous and that your assumption is that there are only two significant figures in the given temperature and round your answer to 1.6E3.

I'll point out that your answer has the same ambiguity. Is 1600 really 1.6E3 or 1.600E3?

MaxW
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  • I thought that the only time we should use the zeroes is if there is a period... But you say its better to calculate as if the period was there for all problems? – eromod Sep 23 '16 at 22:57
  • has four sig figs while 1600 has only two. I thought.
    • – eromod Sep 23 '16 at 22:58
  • does indicate 4 significant figures, but 1600 is ambiguous. It actually could be 1.6E3 or 1.60E3 or 1.600E3.
    • – MaxW Sep 23 '16 at 23:11