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Numerical Approximation: Significant Digits

The document discusses significant digits and numerical approximation. It explains that the number of significant digits in a calculation depends on the least number of significant digits in the input values. Approximate calculations have 1-2 significant digits. Zeroes can be significant or not depending on their placement. In calculations, the answer should have the least number of significant digits of the input values. When adding/subtracting, the answer keeps the same number of decimal places as the least in the inputs. Intermediate calculations should keep one extra digit to avoid round-off error.

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161 views5 pages

Numerical Approximation: Significant Digits

The document discusses significant digits and numerical approximation. It explains that the number of significant digits in a calculation depends on the least number of significant digits in the input values. Approximate calculations have 1-2 significant digits. Zeroes can be significant or not depending on their placement. In calculations, the answer should have the least number of significant digits of the input values. When adding/subtracting, the answer keeps the same number of decimal places as the least in the inputs. Intermediate calculations should keep one extra digit to avoid round-off error.

Uploaded by

tatodc7
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHAPTER 2

NUMERICAL APPROXIMATION
SIGNIFICANT DIGITS
The number of significant digits in an answer to a calculation will depend on the
number of significant digits in the given data, as discussed in the rules below.
Approximate calculations (order-of-magnitude estimates) always result in answers
with only one or two significant digits.

When are Digits Significant?

Non-zero digits are always significant. Thus, 22 has two significant digits, and 22.3
has three significant digits.

With zeroes, the situation is more complicated:

Zeroes placed before other digits are not significant; 0.046 has two significant
digits.

Zeroes placed between other digits are always significant; 4009 kg has four
significant digits.

Zeroes placed after other digits but behind a decimal point are significant; 7.90 has
three significant digits.

Zeroes at the end of a number are significant only if they are behind a decimal
point as in (c). Otherwise, it is impossible to tell if they are significant. For
example, in the number 8200, it is not clear if the zeroes are significant or not.
The number of significant digits in 8200 is at least two, but could be three or four.
To avoid uncertainty, use scientific notation to place significant zeroes behind a
decimal point:

8.200 ´ 103 has four significant digits

8.20 ´ 103 has three significant digits

8.2 ´ 103 has two significant digits


Significant Digits in Multiplication, Division, Trig. functions, etc.

In a calculation involving multiplication, division, trigonometric functions, etc., the


number of significant digits in an answer should equal the least number of
significant digits in any one of the numbers being multiplied, divided etc.

Thus in evaluating sin(kx), where k = 0.097 m-1 (two significant digits) and x =
4.73 m (three significant digits), the answer should have two significant digits.

Note that whole numbers have essentially an unlimited number of significant


digits. As an example, if a hair dryer uses 1.2 kW of power, then 2 identical
hairdryers use 2.4 kW:

1.2 kW {2 sig. dig.} ´ 2 {unlimited sig. dig.} = 2.4 kW {2 sig. dig.}

Significant Digits in Addition and Subtraction

When quantities are being added or subtracted, the number of decimal places (not
significant digits) in the answer should be the same as the least number of decimal
places in any of the numbers being added or subtracted.

Example:

5.67 J (two decimal places)


1.1 J (one decimal place)
0.9378 J (four decimal place)
7.7 J (one decimal place)

Keep One Extra Digit in Intermediate Answers

When doing multi-step calculations, keep at least one more significant digit in
intermediate results than needed in your final answer.

For instance, if a final answer requires two significant digits, then carry at least
three significant digits in calculations. If you round-off all your intermediate
answers to only two digits, you are discarding the information contained in the
third digit, and as a result the second digit in your final answer might be incorrect.
(This phenomenon is known as "round-off error.")

The Two Greatest Sins Regarding Significant Digits

Writing more digits in an answer (intermediate or final) than justified by the


number of digits in the data.
Rounding-off, say, to two digits in an intermediate answer, and then writing three
digits in the final answer

Series (mathematics)

A series is the sum of the terms of a sequence. Finite sequences and


series have defined first and last terms, where as infinite sequences and
series continue indefinitely.
In mathematics, given an infinite sequence of numbers { an }, a series is
informally the result of adding all those terms together: a1 + a2 + a3 + · · ·.
These can be written more compactly using the summation symbol ∑. An
example is the famous series from Zeno's dichotomy

The terms of the series are often produced according to a certain rule, such
as by a formula, or by an algorithm. As there are an infinite number of
terms, this notion is often called an infinite series. Unlike finite
summations, infinite series need tools from mathematical analysis to be fully
understood and manipulated. In addition to their ubiquity in mathematics,
infinite series are also widely used in other quantitative disciplines such as
physics and computer science.

Properties of series

Series are classed not only by whether they converge or diverge: they can also be
split up based on the properties of the terms an (absolute or conditional
convergence); type of convergence of the series (pointwise, uniform); the class of
the term an (whether it is a real number, arithmetic progression, trigonometric
function); etc.

Non-negative terms

When an is a non-negative real number for every n, the sequence SN of partial


sums is non-decreasing. It follows that a series ∑an with non-negative terms
converges if and only if the sequence SN of partial sums is bounded.
For example, the series

is convergent, because the inequality

and a telescopic sum argument imply that the partial sums are bounded by 2.

Absolute convergence

Main article: Absolute convergence

A series

is said to converge absolutely if the series of absolute values

converges. It can be proved that this is sufficient to make not only the original
series converge to a limit, but also for any reordering of it to converge to the same
limit.

Conditional convergence

Main article: Conditional convergence

A series of real or complex numbers is said to be conditionally convergent (or


semi-convergent) if it is convergent but not absolutely convergent. A famous
example is the alternating series
which is convergent (and its sum is equal to ln 2), but the series formed by taking
the absolute value of each term is the divergent harmonic series. The Riemann
series theorem says that any conditionally convergent series can be reordered to
make a divergent series, and moreover, if the an are real and S is any real number,
that one can find a reordering so that the reordered series converges with sum
equal to S.

Abel's test is an important tool for handling semi-convergent series. If a series has
the form

where the partial sums BN = b0 + ··· + bn are bounded, λn has bounded variation,
and lim λn Bn exists:

then the series ∑ an is convergent. This applies to the pointwise convergence of
many trigonometric series, as in

with 0 < x < 2π. Abel's method consists in writing bn+1 = Bn+1 − Bn, and in
performing a transformation similar to integration by parts (called summation by
parts), that relates the given series ∑ an to the absolutely convergent series

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_(mathematics)#Properties_of_series
 http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/sig_fig/SIG_dig.htm
 http://plato.stanford.edu/search/searcher.py?query=precision

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