2: Measurement and Significant Figures
- Page ID
- 364763
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- 2.1: Measurements
- Chemists measure the properties of matter and express these measurements as quantities. A quantity is an amount of something and consists of a number and a unit. The number tells us how many (or how much), and the unit tells us what the scale of measurement is. For example, when a distance is reported as “5 kilometers,” we know that the quantity has been expressed in units of kilometers and that the number of kilometers is 5.
- 2.2: Scientific Notation
- Scientific notation is a system for expressing very large or very small numbers in a compact manner. It uses the idea that such numbers can be rewritten as a simple number multiplied by 10 raised to a certain exponent, or power. Scientific notation expressed numbers using powers of 10.
- 2.3: Significant Figures
- Significant figures properly report the number of measured and estimated digits in a measurement. There are rules for applying significant figures in calculations.
- 2.4: Calculations and Significant Figures
- Significant figures properly report the number of measured and estimated digits in a measurement. There are rules for applying significant figures in calculations.
- 2.5: The International System of Units
- Recognize the SI base units. Combining prefixes with base units creates new units of larger or smaller sizes.

