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Annotation of loncom/html/adm/help/tex/Significant_Figures.tex, revision 1.6

1.2       bowersj2    1: \label{Significant_Figures}
1.1       bowersj2    2: A \textbf{significant figures} specification tells the system how many significant
1.4       lira        3: figures there are in the problem, as either a single number, e.g. 3, or a range of
1.1       bowersj2    4: acceptable values, expressed as \textbf{min,max}. The system will check to
                      5: make sure that the student's answer contains this many significant digits,
1.4       lira        6: useful in many scientific calculations. For example, if the computer answer is {}``1.3'',
1.6     ! raeburn     7: and the problem requests three significant digits, specified by (entered without quotes) 
1.4       lira        8: {}``3'',  the system will require the students to type {}``1.30'',
1.1       bowersj2    9: even though numerically, {}``1.3'' and {}``1.30'' are the same. A significant
1.4       lira       10: figure specification of (entered without quotes) {}``3,4'' means both {}``1.30'' and {}``1.300''
                     11: are acceptable. The significant figures field can be omitted if you do 
1.3       lira       12: not want to constrain the number of significant digits in the student answers.
1.4       lira       13: 
                     14: Note that care must be used when generating and formating computer answers.
                     15: You must assure that the specified answer format provides for enough significant digits.
                     16: To test the formatted answer, LON-CAPA converts the computer answer,
                     17: as generated in the script block, according to the
                     18: format attribute in the numericalresponse tag.
                     19: Then LON-CAPA separately applies that number of significant
                     20: figures to the computer answer, and if that result
                     21: falls outside the range specified in the significant digit parameter, 
1.5       lira       22: it "grades" the computer answer as SIG\_FAIL (i.e., not correct). This helps assure
1.4       lira       23: that you have enough significant digits in the formatted answers you display to the students.
                     24: It is a good idea to use the problem testing environment to test plenty of different
                     25: randomizations to make sure that your format and sig digits parameters are compatible.
                     26: