When converting a number to Scientific Notation, the first step is:
Find up to 4 Significant Digits.
If I have the number $250003456$, which $4$ numbers would be the "significant digits", $2500$ or $3456$? What is the rule behind which numbers would be significant or not, especially with decimal values?
Best Answer
"Significant digits" is actually an abbreviation for "most significant digits" meaning the highest order digits. In your example, $2.500\times10^5$ expresses the number $250003456$ accurately in scientific notation with four significant digit precision.