Rounding Numbers

A rounded number has about the same value as the number you start with, but it is less exact.

For example, 341 rounded to the nearest hundred is 300. That is because 341 is closer in value to
300 than to 400. When rounding off to the nearest dollar, $1.89 becomes $2.00, because $1.89 is closer to $2.00 than to $1.00

Rules for Rounding

Here's the general rule for rounding:

 If the number you are rounding is followed by 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9, round the number up. Example: 38 rounded to the nearest ten is 401
 If the number you are rounding is followed by 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, round the number down. Example: 33 rounded to the nearest ten is
30

What Are You Rounding to?

When rounding a number, you first need to ask: what are you rounding it to? Numbers can be rounded to the nearest ten, the nearest hundred,
the nearest thousand, and so on.

Consider the number 4,827.

 4,827 rounded to the nearest ten is 4,830

 4,827 rounded to the nearest hundred is 4,800
 4,827 rounded to the nearest thousand is 5,000

All the numbers to the right of the place you are rounding to become zeros. Here are some more examples:

 34 rounded to the nearest ten is 30

 6,809 rounded to the nearest hundred is 6,800
 1,951 rounded to the nearest thousand is 2,000

Rounding and Fractions

Rounding fractions works exactly the same way as rounding whole numbers. The only difference is that instead of rounding to tens, hundreds,
thousands, and so on, you round to tenths, hundredths, thousandths, and so on.

 7.8199 rounded to the nearest tenth is 7.8

 1.0621 rounded to the nearest hundredth is 1.06
 3.8792 rounded to the nearest thousandth is 3.879

Here's a tip: to avoid getting confused in rounding long decimals, look only at the number in the place you are rounding to and the number
that follows it. For example, to round 5.3824791401 to the nearest hundredth, just look at the number in the hundredths place—8—and the
number that follows it—2. Then you can easily round it to 5.38.

Rounding and Sums

Rounding can make sums easy. For example, at a grocery store you might pick up items with the following prices:

 $2.25
 $0.88
 $2.69

If you wanted to know about how much they would cost, you could add up the prices with a pen and paper, or try to add them in your head. Or
you could do it the simple way—you could estimate by rounding off to the nearest dollar, like this:

 $2.00
 $1.00
 $3.00

By rounding off, you could easily figure out that you would need about $6.00 to pay for your groceries. This is pretty close to the exact number of
$5.82.

As you can see, in finding a round sum, it is quickest to round the numbers before adding them.

1. Some statisticians prefer to round 5 to the nearest even number. As a result, about half of the time 5 will be rounded up, and about half of the
time it will be rounded down. In this way, 26.5 rounded to the nearest even number would be 26—it would be rounded down. And, 77.5 rounded
to the nearest even number would be 78—it would be rounded up.

Rounding off
To express as a rounded number rather than an exact number.

estimating
Finding an approximate answer, rather than an exact answer.

is an important part of mathematics and a very handy tool for everyday life. Get in the habit of estimating amounts
of money, lengths of time, distances, and many other physical quantities.

To round off decimals:

1. Find the place value you want (the "rounding digit") and look at the digit just to the right of it.
2. If that digit is less than 5, do not change the rounding digit but drop all digits to the right of it.
3. If that digit is greater than or equal to five, add one to the rounding digit and drop all digits to the right of
it.

To round off whole numbers:

1. Find the place value you want (the "rounding digit") and look to the digit just to the right of it.
2. If that digit is less than 5, do not change the "rounding digit" but change all digits to the right of the
"rounding digit" to zero.
3. If that digit is greater than or equal to 5, add one to the rounding digit and change
Estimating, or being able to guess and come close to a correct answer, is an important part of mathematics and a
very handy tool for everyday life. You should get in the habit of estimating amounts of money, lengths of time,
distances, and many other physical quantities. Rounding is a kind of estimating.

To round a number you must first find the rounding digit, or the digit occupying the place value you're rounding to.
Then look at the digit to the right of the rounding digit. If it is less than 5, then leave the rounding digit unchanged.
If it is more than five, add one to the rounding digit. If it is five, the rule is to always round up (add one to the
rounding digit). This rule was created to "break the tie" when you are rounding a number that is exactly between
two other numbers. These kinds of rules are called "conventions", and are important so we all get the same answer
when doing the same problems.

If you're dealing with a decimal number, drop all of the digits following the rounding digit.

If you're dealing with a whole number, all the digits to the right of the rounding digit become zero.

This sounds a lot more complicated than it really is!

It's easiest to learn rounding by studying examples.

To round the number 16,745.2583 to the nearest thousandth

First find the rounding digit. This is the "8". You are trying to get rid of the all the digits to the right of the 8, but
you want the result to be as accurate as possible.

Now look one digit to the right, at the digit in the ten-thousandths place which is "3". See that 3 is less than 5, so
leave the number "8" as is, and drop the digits to the right of 8. This gives 16,745.258.

To round 14,769.3352 to the nearest hundred

Find the rounding digit, "7". Look at the digit one place to right, "6". Six is more than 5, so this number needs to
be rounded up. Add one the rounding digit and change all the rest of the digits to the right of it to zero. You can
remove the decimal part of the number too. The result is 14,800.

To round 365 to the nearest ten

Find the rounding digit, "6". Look at the digit to the right of the six, "5". Since 365 is exactly halfway between 360
and 370, the two nearest multiples of ten, we need the rule to decide which way to round. The rule says you round
up, so the answer is 370.

When rounding whole numbers there are two rules to remember:

I will use the term rounding digit - which means: When asked to round to the closest tens - your rounding digit is the
second number to the left (ten's place) when working with whole numbers. When asked to round to the nearest hundred,
the third place from the left is the rounding digit (hundreds place).

Rule One. Determine what your rounding digit is and look to the right side of it. If the digit is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 do not
change the rounding digit. All digits that are on the right hand side of the requested rounding digit will become 0.

Rule Two. Determine what your rounding digit is and look to the right of it. If the digit is 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9, your rounding
digit rounds up by one number. All digits that are on the right hand side of the requested rounding digit will become 0.

Rounding with decimals: When rounding numbers involving decimals, there are 2 rules to remember:

Rule One Determine what your rounding digit is and look to the right side of it. If that digit is 4, 3, 2, or 1, simply drop all
digits to the right of it.

Rule Two Determine what your rounding digit is and look to the right side of it. If that digit is 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 add one to
the rounding digit and drop all digits to the right of it.

Rule Three: Some teachers prefer this method:

This rule provides more accuracy and is sometimes referred to as the 'Banker's Rule'. When the first digit dropped is 5 and
there are no digits following or the digits following are zeros, make the preceding digit even (i.e. round off to the nearest
even digit). E.g., 2.315 and 2.325 are both 2.32 when rounded off to the nearest hundredth. Note: The rationale for the
third rule is that approximately half of the time the number will be rounded up and the other half of the time it will be
rounded down.

An example:
765.3682 becomes:

1000 when asked to round to the nearest thousand (1000)

800 when asked to round to the nearest hundred (100)

770 when asked to round to the nearest ten (10)

765 when asked to round to the nearest one (1)

765.4 when asked to round to the nearest tenth (10th)

765.37 when asked to round to the nearest hundredth (100th.)

765.368 when asked to round to the nearest thousandth (1000th)

Try the rounding worksheets complete with solutions.

Rounding comes in handy when you are about to leave a tip. Let's say your bill is $48.95. I would round to $50.00 and
leave a 15% tip. To quickly figure out the tip, I would say $5.00 is 10% and I need half of that which is $2.50 bringing my tip to
$7.50 but again, I'd round up and leave $8.00! If the service was good that is!

GET THESE RULES FOR ROUNDING OFF NUMBERS

CASE A: For example, if only one decimal
In rounding off numbers, the last figure kept should is to be kept, then 6.422
beunchanged if the first figure dropped is less than 5. becomes 6.4.

CASE B: For example, if only two

In rounding off numbers, the last figure kept should decimals are to be kept, then
beincreased by 1 if the first figure dropped is greater than 6.4872 becomes 6.49. Similarly,
5. 6.997 becomes 7.00.

For example, if only one decimal

CASE C:
is to be kept, then 6.6500
In rounding off numbers, if the first figure dropped is 5,
becomes 6.6.
and all the figures following the five are zero or if there are
no figures after the 5, then the last figure kept should
For example, if only two
be unchanged if that last figure is even.
decimals are to be kept, then
7.485 becomes 7.48.

CASE D: For example, if only two

In rounding off numbers, if the first figure dropped is 5, decimals are to be kept, then
 6.755000 becomes 6.76.
and all the figures following the five are zero or if there are
no figures after the 5, then the last figure kept should
For example, if only two
be increased by 1 if that last figure is odd.
decimals are to be kept,
8.995 becomes 9.00.

For example, if only one decimal

CASE E:
is to be kept, then 6.6501
In rounding off numbers, if the first figure dropped is 5,
becomes 6.7.
and there are any figures following the five that
are notzero, then the last figure kept should be increased
For example, if only two
by 1.
decimals are to be kept, then
7.4852007 becomes 7.49.

EXAMPLES USED IN THE RULES

Number of decimal Last figure First figure Last figure
NUMBER
places desired to be kept to be dropped kept and/or number becomes

6.422 1 6.4 6.42 6.4

6.4872 2 6.48 6.487 6.49

6.997 2 6.99 6.997 7.00

6.6500 1 6.6 6.65 6.6

7.485 2 7.48 7.485 7.48

6.755000 2 6.75 6.755 6.76

8.995 2 8.99 8.995 9.00

6.6501 1 6.6 6.65 6.7

 7.4852007 2 7.48 7.485 7.49

Rounding a numerical value means replacing it by another value that is approximately equal but has a shorter, simpler, or more
explicit representation; for example, replacing £23.4476 with £23.45, or the fraction 312/937 with 1/3, or the expression √2 with
1.414.

Rounding is often done on purpose to obtain a value that is easier to write and handle than the original. It may be done also to
indicate the accuracy of a computed number; for example, a quantity that was computed as 123,456 but is known to be accurate
only to within a few hundred units is better stated as "about 123,500."

On the other hand, rounding introduces some round-off error in the result. Rounding is almost unavoidable in many computations —
especially when dividing two numbers in integer or fixed-point arithmetic; when computing mathematical functions such as square
roots, logarithms, and sines; or when using a floating point representation with a fixed number of significant digits. In a sequence of
calculations, these rounding errors generally accumulate, and in certain ill-conditioned cases they may make the result meaningless.

Accurate rounding of transcendental mathematical functions is difficult because the number of extra digits that need to be calculated
to resolve whether to round up or down cannot be known in advance. This problem is known as "the table-maker's dilemma".

Rounding has many similarities to the quantization that occurs when physical quantities must be encoded by numbers or digital
signals.

Rounding Numbers

What is "Rounding" ?
Rounding means reducing the digits in a number while trying to keep its value similar. The
result is less accurate, but easier to use.

Example: 73 rounded to the nearest ten is 70, because 73 is closer to 70 than to 80.

Common Method

There are several different methods for rounding, but here we will only look at the common method, the one
used by most people ...

How to Round Numbers

 Decide which is the last digit to keep

 Leave it the same if the next digit is less than 5 (this is called rounding down)
 But increase it by 1 if the next digit is 5 or more (this is called rounding up)

Example: Round 74 to the nearest 10

 We want to keep the "7" as it is in the 10s position

 The next digit is "4" which is less than 5, so no change is needed to "7"

Answer: 70
(74 gets "rounded down")
Example: Round 86 to the nearest 10
 We want to keep the "8"
 The next digit is "6" which is 5 or more, so increase the "8" by 1 to "9"

Answer: 90
(86 gets "rounded up")

So: when the first digit removed is 5 or more, increase the last digit remaining by 1.

Why does 5 go up ?

5 is in the middle ... so we could go up or down. But we need a method that everyone agrees to use.

So think about sport: you should have the same number of players on each team, right?

 0,1,2,3 and 4 are on team "down"

 5,6,7,8 and 9 are on team "up"

And that is the "common" method of rounding. Read about other methods of rounding.

Rounding Decimals
First you need to know if you are rounding to tenths, or hundredths, etc. Or maybe to "so many decimal places".
That tells you how much of the number will be left when you finish.

Examples Because ...

3.1416 rounded to hundredths is 3.14 ... the next digit (1) is less than 5

1.2635 rounded to tenths is 1.3 ... the next digit (6) is 5 or more

1.2635 rounded to 3 decimal places is 1.264 ... the next digit (5) is 5 or more

Rounding Whole Numbers

You may want to round to tens, hundreds, etc, In this case you replace the removed digits with zero.

Examples Because ...

134.9 rounded to tens is 130 ... the next digit (4) is less than 5

12,690 rounded to thousands is 13,000 ... the next digit (6) is 5 or more

1.239 rounded to units is 1 ... the next digit (2) is less than 5
Rounding to Significant Digits

To round "so many" significant digits, just count digits from left to right, and then round off from there.

Note: if there are leading zeros (such as 0.006), don't count them because they are only there to show how small
the number is.

Examples Because ...

1.239 rounded to 3 significant digits is 1.24 ... the next digit (9) is 5 or more

134.9 rounded to 1 significant digit is 100 ... the next digit (3) is less than 5

0.0165 rounded to 2 significant digits is 0.017 ... the next digit (5) is 5 or more