In engineering calculations, the information given is not known to more than a certain number of significant digits, usually three digits. Consequently, the results obtained cannot possibly be accurate to more significant digits. Reporting results in more significant digits implies greater accuracy than exists, and it should be avoided. For example, consider a 3.75-L container filled with gasoline whose density is 0.845 kg/L, and try to determine its mass. Probably the first thought that comes to your mind is to multiply the volume and density to obtain 3.16875 kg for the mass, which falsely implies that the mass determined is accurate to six significant digits. In reality, however, the mass cannot be more accurate than three significant digits since both the volume and the density are accurate to three significant digits only. Therefore, the result should be rounded to three significant digits, and the mass should be reported to be 3.17 kg instead of what appears in the screen of the calculator. The result 3.16875 kg would be correct only if the volume and density were given to be 3.75000 L and 0.845000 kg/L, respectively. The value 3.75 L implies that we are fairly confident that the volume is accurate within ±0.01 L, and it cannot be 3.74 or 3.76 L. However, the volume can be 3.746, 3.750, 3.753, etc., since they all round to 3.75 L (Fig. 1–62). It is more appropriate to retain all the digits during intermediate calculations, and to do the rounding in the final step since this is what a computer will normally do. When solving problems, we will assume the given information to be accurate to at least three significant digits. Therefore, if the length of a pipe is given to be 40 m, we will assume it to be 40.0 m in order to justify using three significant digits in the final results. You should also keep in mind that all experimentally determined values are subject to measurement errors, and such errors will reflect in the results obtained. For example, if the density of a substance has an uncertainty of 2 percent, then the mass determined using this density value will also have an uncertainty of 2 percent. You should also be aware that we sometimes knowingly introduce small errors in order to avoid the trouble of searching for more accurate data. For example, when dealing with liquid water, we just use the value of 1000 kg/m3 for density, which is the density value of pure water at 0°C. Using this value at 75°C will result in an error of 2.5 percent since the density at this temperature is 975 kg/m3. The minerals and impurities in the water will introduce additional error. This being the case, you should have no reservation in rounding the final results to a reasonable number of significant digits. Besides, having a few percent uncertainty in the results of engineering analysis is usually the norm, not the exception.
