[ale] [OT] Help with Significant Figures Explaination

[James Sumners]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_figures

On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 4:52 PM, tom <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:
>
> OK.  __WAY__ off topic for here, but there are bright souls around who
> have the training and background that they might have a clue and or an
> answer.
>
> Background. I got a gig teaching chemistry at a neaby community college.
> One of the students asked the always popular "Why?" question this time
> regarding significant figures. Now one of my books thirty plus years ago
> had a nice, high school level justification for the rules of significant
> figures, showing that the rules mostly conserved the relative amounts of
> error from the raw data to the end result. Of course, I can not find that
> book right now. Nor am I finding anything on the web.
>
> Well, that last crack isn't quite true. I have found one site which gives
> some justification of significant figures using standard deviation and
> replications. My students aren't quite ready for that level of work. I
> need something a tad bit simpler, preferably with demonstrations. I would
> also enjoy showing the limitations of significant figures assuming I can
> find a nice simple justification.
>
> My thanks in advance.
>
> Back to Google et all to try a different approach
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-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59