What is the area of a recantangel `12.34 cm` wide and `1.23 cm` long?
Stargetey: The area of a rectangler is its length times its width. First, we must check that the width and length are expressed in the same units. Then we mutiply the length by the width. Finally, we follow rule 3 to find the correct number fo significant figures. The Units for the result are equal to the product of the units for the individual terms in the multiplication.

Explanation

Area = length `xx` Width
`= (1.23 cm)(12.34 cm)`
`= 153.1782 cm^(2) larr` Calculate result
`= 15.2 cm^(2) larr` Reported answer
The reported answer should contain only three significant figures because three is the smallest number of significant figures used in original numbers.