Hi guys! I just learned about significant figures today, and I have a question about them. My teacher gave us a problem where all values have what I think is four significant figures (like 44.56) except the value for temperature (which is 25.5C). Are temperature values considered exact values where significant figures do not apply, or should I be rounding my answer to three significant figures instead of four?

No, temps are not exact..they are measurements...in this case, three sig digits.

Great question! When it comes to significant figures, temperature values are indeed considered exact values where significant figures do not apply. This is because temperature measurements are typically taken with highly precise instruments and are considered to be known with absolute certainty.

In your problem, since the temperature value is given as 25.5°C, with three digits after the decimal point, it implies that the measurement was made with an instrument that has the capability to measure the temperature to that level of precision. As a result, you should treat the temperature value as an exact value and not consider it when determining the number of significant figures in your calculations.

Therefore, you should round your answer based on the other values in the problem that have four significant figures. In this case, you would round your final answer to four significant figures and not three.

To summarize, temperature values are considered exact values where significant figures do not apply, so you can ignore it when determining the number of significant figures in your calculations.