The length and breadth of a rectangular plate are measured to be 14.5 cm and 4.2cm respectively. Find its area to appropriate significant figures.

Explanation

Here length = 14.5 cm `to` 3 significant figures.
Breadth = 4.2 cm `to` 2 significant figures
`therefore` Area = `14.5xx4.2cm^(2)`
= `60.90cm^(2)`
The answer should be rounded off to two significant figures.
`therefore` The digit to be dropped in the answer 60.90 is 9 (circled) which is greater than 5. So the preceding zero is raised by 1.
Hence the answer `61cm^(2)`.