Question

a scientist is determining the mass of 25,000 molecules of oxygen. use this to answer parts a and b. the mass of one molecule of oxygen = 5.3×10^(-23) gram. a. how many significant digits should be in the solution? there should be significant digits in the solution. (type a whole number.)

Explanation:

Step1: Identify significant - digits in given mass

The mass of one molecule of oxygen is given as $5.3\times10^{-23}$ gram. In scientific - notation, the significant digits are the digits in the coefficient. Here, the coefficient is 5.3, and it has 2 significant digits.

Step2: Determine significant - digits in final answer

When multiplying a number with a certain number of significant digits by an exact number (25000 is an exact count of molecules), the number of significant digits in the final answer is determined by the non - exact number. So, the number of significant digits in the solution for the mass of 25000 molecules of oxygen will be the same as the number of significant digits in the mass of one molecule of oxygen.

Answer:

2