You may prefer the following less colorful way to say the
                              same thing:

                                 1. Ignore leading zeros.
                                 2. Ignore trailing zeros, unless they come after a decimal point.
                                 3. Everything else is significant.

                              The rule is easy to use and to remember, but it lets you count significant digits without
                              having the slightest idea what they really are.

                              If you feel comfortable with scientific notation, the simplest rule for counting significant
                              digits is:
                                   "Convert the number into scientific notation. Any leading or trailing zeros the
                                   decimal point bumps past in the conversion will vanish. Everything else is
                                   significant."

                             Writing measurements in scientific notation shows that the significant part of the
                              measurement doesn't change when you change units. For example, 2.0 cm = 2.0 × 10^-2
                              m = 2.0 × 10¹ mm = 2.0 × 10⁴ µm, all with 2 significant digits.
 
 
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