I certainly agree with John Denker about my wording "significant
digits." I don't like it either. Indeed, I like his words "three digit
representation."
The question is, will people generally recognize what
three-digit-representation means?
I hope it does not mean the same thing as another set of words John
used... "three decimal places."
The point is, if the calculator reads 0.00012345 then I do not want them
to write 0.000, which the typical student would do if I said to report
three decimal places. I am not sure what they would write if I asked
them to use three digit representation, but I think I might start using
that wording and explain what I mean by it.
When I used the words three significant digits I absolutely did not
intend to imply precision or uncertainty or anything like that. Rather,
I meant that 0.00012345 should be written as 0.000123 or as 1.23E-4,
etc. I was simply intending to communicate that I wanted 3 digits not
counting leading zeroes. Of course trailing zeroes can be problematic
because when the calculator says 12045, and students report 12000, the
reader does not know if this is three digit representation or two unless
the student writes it as 1.20E4 (which is what I encourage student to
write). But I don't want to get bogged down in those details.
By using significant digits rather than significant figures I was hoping
to imply that I wanted something different than the usual sig-fig stuff.
As John has pointed out, I have not succeeded.
Would list participants think "three digit representation" is a good way
to name what I want students to do? It seems to me it works, and unless
someone can give some good reason why this is not a good idea, I think I
will start using it, and I thank John for suggesting it.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
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