How does the number of significant figures in a numerical value relate to precision and accuracy…?
Precision the degree to which your measurment results are reproducable, and accuracy is how close a measurement comes to the actual value of the object being measured. The precision of a measurement determines how confident you are in your numerical results, and this, in turn, is reflected in the number of sig figures used in your numerical value of the measurement. Ex: You measure mass from a scale that can only be read to 0.01 grams. SO if you weigh an object several times on this scale and get the following measurements,: 25.30g, 25.33 g, 25.29g, 25.31g then the average mass is 25.3075g, which implies that you can accurately say with confidence the measurement is not 25.3074 or 25.3076, but exactly 25.3075. This is not possible, because there’s no way to say you are 100% sure it’s not 25.3074 since all of these values would read 25.31 on the scale. Thus, the overall precision of the measurement limits the precision of the calculated number (averaged number). The mass can only be quo
