How many sig figs are used in standard deviation?

Question

Is there a set number of sig figs (like 2 s.f. or 2 numbers after the decimal place), or it depends on the smallest number of sig figs in my data (ex: 4.124, 5.29458, 3.8, 4.395 the standard deviation would have 2 s.f. since 3.8 has the least # of sig figs?)

Thank you.

Answer 1

it would depend on the smallest number of significant figures in your data. The whole purpose of significant figures is that you can only be as precise as your your "least precise" piece of data which would be the one with the least amount of significant figures. So yea in your example, it would be 2 s.f. because of the 3.8.

Answer 2

Calculator With Sig Figs

Answer 3

How Many Sig Figs Calculator

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

How many sig figs are used in standard deviation?

Is there a set number of sig figs (like 2 s.f. or 2 numbers after the decimal place), or it depends on the smallest number of sig figs in my data (ex: 4.124, 5.29458, 3.8, 4.395 the standard deviation would have 2 s.f. since 3.8 has the least # of sig figs?)



Thank you.

Answer 5

I realize that I'm 6 six years late in answering this question, but for anyone else that might stumble across this post the correct answer is 1 significant figure.



An experiment must be repeated at least 51 times for the standard deviation to have two sig figs. While the data itself has two sig figs, the standard deviation would only have 1.

Answer 6

For my chemistry at uni, we go as many decimal places as our mean. If our mean is 51.1 and our std was 0.423 then it will go to 0.4, if our mean was 150 and our std was 0.5231 then it would be 1

Answer 7

If you have a graphing calculator it will do all this math for you. Each one has different instructions, but try looking in your manual.