Back to 1.6 Significant Figures

1.6 Exercise 1

Avg difficulty 2.5

A high school track coach has just purchased a new stopwatch. The stopwatch manual states the stopwatch has an uncertainty of ±0.05 s. Runners on the track coach’s team regularly clock 100-m sprints of 11.49 s to 15.01 s. At the school’s last track meet, the first-place sprinter came in at 12.04 s and the second-place sprinter came in at 12.07 s. Will the coach’s new stopwatch be helpful in timing the sprint team? Why or why not?

OpenStax University Physics Volume 1, 1.6 Significant Figures, exercise 1

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Adapted from University Physics Volume 1 © 2016 Rice University. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: University Physics Volume 1. Imported at revision db44eb9.