Can I use excel to round operations with measurements to significant figures

I am not finding your question to be clear.. can you provide a little more
detail as to what you are looking for along with 3 or 4 examples of what you
have and what you expect them to look like after being rounded?

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"bgarey" wrote in message
...
Can I use excel to round operations with measurements to significant
figures

When adding measurements, the final answer needs to be rounded off to the
least significant place value of the measurements:

The answer to 12.3 + 312.56 should be rounded off to the .10's place.
The answer to 1200 + 346 should be rounded off to the 100's place.

When multiply and dividing, the final answer should be rounded off to the
least number of significant digits.

The answer to 245 x 1.2 should be rounded to 2 digits and adding zero's for
place value if necessasry.


"Rick Rothstein" wrote:

I am not finding your question to be clear.. can you provide a little more
detail as to what you are looking for along with 3 or 4 examples of what you
have and what you expect them to look like after being rounded?

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"bgarey" wrote in message
...
Can I use excel to round operations with measurements to significant
figures

The short answer is no... The problem that you run up against with this type
of rounding is that there is no definitieve way to assess the least
significant digit. In your example with 1200 you indicate that the result
should be rounded to the nearest 100. Your assumption is that 1200 is only
accurate to the nearest 100 units of measure. It could actually be accurate
to the nearest single unit. 1201 would be accurate to the nearest single
unit. To be truely accurate you either need to know the the accuracy of the
least significant digit, or if you have a large enough data set of repeated
mesurements that you can use stats to determine the least significant digit.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"bgarey" wrote:

When adding measurements, the final answer needs to be rounded off to the
least significant place value of the measurements:

The answer to 12.3 + 312.56 should be rounded off to the .10's place.
The answer to 1200 + 346 should be rounded off to the 100's place.

When multiply and dividing, the final answer should be rounded off to the
least number of significant digits.

The answer to 245 x 1.2 should be rounded to 2 digits and adding zero's for
place value if necessasry.


"Rick Rothstein" wrote:

I am not finding your question to be clear.. can you provide a little more
detail as to what you are looking for along with 3 or 4 examples of what you
have and what you expect them to look like after being rounded?

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"bgarey" wrote in message
...
Can I use excel to round operations with measurements to significant
figures

My recollection about measurement "theory" is that 1200 has four significant
digits of accuracy because it is presented using four digits (the assumption
being it was measured to the last shown digit). On the other hand, had it
been presented as 1.2x10², then there are only two significant digits (the
power of ten is immaterial) and, as I recall, in a calculation of
measurements, the answer should be rounded to the least of the significant
digits among the values making up the calculation.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"Jim Thomlinson" wrote in message
...
The short answer is no... The problem that you run up against with this
type
of rounding is that there is no definitieve way to assess the least
significant digit. In your example with 1200 you indicate that the result
should be rounded to the nearest 100. Your assumption is that 1200 is only
accurate to the nearest 100 units of measure. It could actually be
accurate
to the nearest single unit. 1201 would be accurate to the nearest single
unit. To be truely accurate you either need to know the the accuracy of
the
least significant digit, or if you have a large enough data set of
repeated
mesurements that you can use stats to determine the least significant
digit.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"bgarey" wrote:

When adding measurements, the final answer needs to be rounded off to the
least significant place value of the measurements:

The answer to 12.3 + 312.56 should be rounded off to the .10's place.
The answer to 1200 + 346 should be rounded off to the 100's place.

When multiply and dividing, the final answer should be rounded off to the
least number of significant digits.

The answer to 245 x 1.2 should be rounded to 2 digits and adding zero's
for
place value if necessasry.


"Rick Rothstein" wrote:

I am not finding your question to be clear.. can you provide a little
more
detail as to what you are looking for along with 3 or 4 examples of
what you
have and what you expect them to look like after being rounded?

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"bgarey" wrote in message
...
Can I use excel to round operations with measurements to significant
figures

How would you distinguish 1200 measured to 2 significant figures from 1200
measured to 3 or 4 significant figures?
--
David Biddulph

"bgarey" wrote in message
...
When adding measurements, the final answer needs to be rounded off to the
least significant place value of the measurements:

The answer to 12.3 + 312.56 should be rounded off to the .10's place.
The answer to 1200 + 346 should be rounded off to the 100's place.

When multiply and dividing, the final answer should be rounded off to the
least number of significant digits.

The answer to 245 x 1.2 should be rounded to 2 digits and adding zero's
for
place value if necessasry.


"Rick Rothstein" wrote:

I am not finding your question to be clear.. can you provide a little
more
detail as to what you are looking for along with 3 or 4 examples of what
you
have and what you expect them to look like after being rounded?

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"bgarey" wrote in message
...
Can I use excel to round operations with measurements to significant
figures

When I took significant figures, we differentiated it as follows:

1. 1200 is 2 sig figs
2. 1200. is 4 sig figs (note the decimal point)
3. 1.20 x 10^3 is 3 sig figs

Regards,
Fred.

"David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk wrote in message
...
How would you distinguish 1200 measured to 2 significant figures from 1200
measured to 3 or 4 significant figures?
--
David Biddulph

"bgarey" wrote in message
...
When adding measurements, the final answer needs to be rounded off to the
least significant place value of the measurements:

The answer to 12.3 + 312.56 should be rounded off to the .10's place.
The answer to 1200 + 346 should be rounded off to the 100's place.

When multiply and dividing, the final answer should be rounded off to the
least number of significant digits.

The answer to 245 x 1.2 should be rounded to 2 digits and adding zero's
for
place value if necessasry.


"Rick Rothstein" wrote:

I am not finding your question to be clear.. can you provide a little
more
detail as to what you are looking for along with 3 or 4 examples of what
you
have and what you expect them to look like after being rounded?

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"bgarey" wrote in message
...
Can I use excel to round operations with measurements to significant
figures

This is all correct. But is there away to get Excel to round to the correct
place value.
I know the TI-83 calculators have an application that can round to correct
significant figures. I have no idea how to do this.

"Fred Smith" wrote:

When I took significant figures, we differentiated it as follows:

1. 1200 is 2 sig figs
2. 1200. is 4 sig figs (note the decimal point)
3. 1.20 x 10^3 is 3 sig figs

Regards,
Fred.

"David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk wrote in message
...
How would you distinguish 1200 measured to 2 significant figures from 1200
measured to 3 or 4 significant figures?
--
David Biddulph

"bgarey" wrote in message
...
When adding measurements, the final answer needs to be rounded off to the
least significant place value of the measurements:

The answer to 12.3 + 312.56 should be rounded off to the .10's place.
The answer to 1200 + 346 should be rounded off to the 100's place.

When multiply and dividing, the final answer should be rounded off to the
least number of significant digits.

The answer to 245 x 1.2 should be rounded to 2 digits and adding zero's
for
place value if necessasry.


"Rick Rothstein" wrote:

I am not finding your question to be clear.. can you provide a little
more
detail as to what you are looking for along with 3 or 4 examples of what
you
have and what you expect them to look like after being rounded?

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"bgarey" wrote in message
...
Can I use excel to round operations with measurements to significant
figures