There are 365.25 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Convert years into seconds. Show your work and keep 5 significant figures.

Ok, so finding it is easy (multiply 24, 60, 60 and 365.25) but how does the significant figures part play in to the problem? Maybe I'm just not understanding what it is asking of me. Help! Thank you!

To convert years into seconds, you need to multiply the number of years by the number of seconds in a year. Here's the step-by-step process, including consideration for significant figures:

1. Start with the quantity being converted. Let's say we have X years.

2. Multiply X years by the number of days in a year, which is 365.25 days. This converts years to days, where 365.25 days is the average length of a year when accounting for leap years.

X years × 365.25 days/year = Y days

3. Multiply Y days by the number of hours in a day, which is 24 hours. This converts days to hours.

Y days × 24 hours/day = Z hours

4. Multiply Z hours by the number of minutes in an hour, which is 60 minutes. This converts hours to minutes.

Z hours × 60 minutes/hour = W minutes

5. Multiply W minutes by the number of seconds in a minute, which is 60 seconds. This converts minutes to seconds.

W minutes × 60 seconds/minute = S seconds

Now, combining all the conversions:

X years × 365.25 days/year × 24 hours/day × 60 minutes/hour × 60 seconds/minute = S seconds

To maintain 5 significant figures, you should round the final answer, S seconds, to 5 significant digits. Significant figures refer to the meaningful digits in a number and help preserve the precision of the calculations.