[ale] [OT] Help with Significant Figures Explaination

[tfreeman at intel.digichem.net (tom)]

OK.  __WAY__ off topic for here, but there are bright souls around who 
have the training and background that they might have a clue and or an 
answer.

Background. I got a gig teaching chemistry at a neaby community college. 
One of the students asked the always popular "Why?" question this time 
regarding significant figures. Now one of my books thirty plus years ago 
had a nice, high school level justification for the rules of significant 
figures, showing that the rules mostly conserved the relative amounts of 
error from the raw data to the end result. Of course, I can not find that 
book right now. Nor am I finding anything on the web.

Well, that last crack isn't quite true. I have found one site which gives 
some justification of significant figures using standard deviation and 
replications. My students aren't quite ready for that level of work. I 
need something a tad bit simpler, preferably with demonstrations. I would 
also enjoy showing the limitations of significant figures assuming I can 
find a nice simple justification.

My thanks in advance.

Back to Google et all to try a different approach