ROUNDING

Whole Number and Decimal Rounding

It is helpful, and sometimes necessary, to write a simpler version of a number by rounding that number to a particular place value. Rounding is the process used to determine which common multiple that number is closest to. You will understand rounding better if you understand the concept of multiples. If you count by 10's, you have multiples of 10: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, . . ., 200, 210, 220, . . ., 350, 360, . . .etc. If you count by 100's, you have multiples of 100: 100, 200, 300, 400, . . ., 800, 900, 1000, . . . etc. When we round, we are actually deciding which number is closer to the number being rounded, the multiple just below it or the next higher multiple. EXAMPLE 1: SOLUTION: Round 48 to the nearest multiple of 10 48 falls between the multiples of 40 and 50 40 45 50 48 It is clear that 48 is closer to 50, than it is to 40. Therefore, we would say that 48 rounds off to 50, because that is the multiple of 10 it is closest to. It is important to change all places to the right of the rounded digit to zeros. So 48 rounded to the nearest ten is 50, not 5 or 58. EXAMPLE 2: SOLUTION: Round 123 to the nearest multiple of 100 123 falls between the multiples of 100 and 200 100 150 200 123 It is clear that 123 is closer to 100, than it is to 200. Therefore, we would say that 123 rounds off to 100, because that is the multiple of 100 it is closest to.

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Rounding off other place values is done the same way. Round to the higher multiple if a number is more than halfway between the two multiples. Round to the lower multiple if a number is less than halfway between the two multiples. When a number is exactly halfway between the two multiples, round to the higher multiple. Let's look at another example. EXAMPLE 3: SOLUTION: Round 83,927 to the nearest ten thousand. This means round to the nearest multiple of ten thousand. 83,927 falls between the multiples 80,000 and 90,000 80,000 85,000 90,000 83,927 halfway It is clear that 83,927 is less than halfway between the multiples of 80,000 and 90,000. Following the basic rules stated above, we would clearly round 83,927 to 80,000. Use this method to work the following exercises.

PRACTICE SET - 1 Round the following numbers to the place value given. 1) 827 to the nearest hundred _______________ 3) 98,999 to the nearest ten-thousand _______________ 2) 8,500 to the nearest thousand _______________ 4) 913 to the nearest ten _______________

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SOLUTIONS - 1 800 850 900 1) 827 is less than halfway between 800 and 900, 827 so, 827 rounded to the nearest hundred is 800. halfway

8,000 8,500 9,000 2) 9,000, 8,500 is halfway 90,000 95,000 100,000 3) 98,999 halfway 910 915 920 4) so, 913 halfway

8,500 is exactly halfway between 8,000 and so, 8,500 rounded to the nearest thousand is 9,000.

98,999 is more than halfway between 90,000 and 100,000, so, 98,999 rounded to the nearest tenthousand is 100,000.

913 is less than halfway between 910 and 920, 913 rounded to the nearest ten is 910.

Determining multiples, especially for large numbers, can be time consuming. the following summary will help you do rounding more quickly.

STEPS FOR ROUNDING WHOLE NUMBERS 1) Locate the digit in the place value being rounded and circle it. 2) Reference the first digit to the right of the circled digit. 3) If the digit to the right is less than 5, the circled digit remains unchanged and all digits to the right are changed to zeros. If the digit to the right is 5 or greater, the circled digit is increased by 1 and all digits to the right are changed to zeros.

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Let's try these rounding steps to round more numbers to show how much simpler this method can be. EXAMPLE 4: Round 5823 to the nearest hundred. SOLUTION: Step 1) Locate the digit being rounded and circle it. 5 8 2 3 Step 2) Reference the first digit to the right. 5 8 2 3 Step 3) If the digit to the right is less than five, the circled digit remains the same and all digits to the right change to zeros. Result: 5800 EXAMPLE 5: Round 39,915 to the nearest thousand SOLUTION: Step 1) Locate the digit being rounded and circle it. 3 9 9 1 5

Step 2) Reference the first digit to the right. 3 9 9 1 5

Step 3) If the digit to the right is five or more, the circled digit is increased by 1 and all digits to the right change to zeros. Result: 40,000 Did you notice what happened in example 5? When we added 1 to the 9 in the thousands place, that digit became a 0 and the digit to the left was increased by 1.

PRACTICE SET - 2 Use the steps shown above to round the following numbers. 1) Round 92,729 to the nearest hundred. 2) Round 82,021 to the nearest ten-thousand. 3) Round 999 to the nearest ten. 4) Round 618,789 to the nearest hundred-thousand. Round 7,528,409 to the nearest: 5) million 7) ten _______________ _______________ 6) thousand 8) ten-thousand

ROUNDING

_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

_______________ _______________

SOLUTIONS - 2 1) 92,700 5) 8,000,000 2) 80,000 6) 7,528,000 3) 1,000 7) 7,528,410 4) 600,000 8) 7,530,000

Now that we have arrived at an easy set of steps for rounding whole numbers, let's adapt our set of steps for use on decimal numbers.

STEPS FOR ROUNDING DECIMAL NUMBERS 1) Locate the digit in the place value being rounded and circle it. 2) Reference the first digit to the right of the circled digit. 3) If the digit to the right is less than 5, the circled digit remains unchanged and all digits to the right are discarded. If the digit to the right is 5 or greater, the circled digit is increased by 1 and all digits to the right are discarded.

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EXAMPLE 5: Round 4.38 to the nearest tenth SOLUTION: Step 1) Locate the digit being rounded and circle it. 4 3 8 Step 2) Reference the first digit to the right. 4 3 8 Step 3) If the digit to the right is five or more, the circled digit is increased by 1 and all digits to the right are discarded. Result: 4.4 EXAMPLE 6: Round 16.3247 to the nearest hundredth SOLUTION: Step 1) Locate the digit being rounded and circle it. 1 6 3 2 4 7 Step 2) Reference the first digit to the right. 1 6 3 2 4 7 Step 3) If the digit to the right is less than five, the circled digit remains the same and all digits to the right are discarded. Result: 16.32

PRACTICE SET - 3 Round to the nearest tenth: 1) 135.497 2) 47.63 3) 79.826 4) 0.258 _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ Round to the nearest hundredth: 5) 0.7963 6) 3.0349 7) 892.047318 8) 6.754 _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

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Round 573.01847 to the nearest: 9) thousandth _______________ 10) ten _______________

11) hundredth _______________

12) ten-thousandth _______________

SOLUTIONS - 3 1) 135.5 5) 0.80 9) 573.018 2) 47.6 6) 3.03 10) 570 3) 79.8 7) 892.05 11) 573.02 4) 0.3 or .3 8) 6.75 12) 573.0185

Rounding can be very helpful in our day-to-day lives. Many of us already use rounding without really realizing it. The following examples show different ways in which rounding is helpful. EXAMPLE 7: Kara is shopping for a new outfit for graduation. She has picked out a dress and a pair of shoes, but would also like to get a new purse. She has $150 to spend and the dress is $89.95 and the shoes are $32.45. She doesn't have a calculator but needs to be sure she can afford the $20.00 purse she wants. SOLUTION: Kara can easily round each of the three purchase prices to the nearest ten dollars and quickly add them in her head. ACTUAL PRICE $ 89.95 32.45 20.00 ROUNDED PRICE $ 90.00 30.00 20.00 140.00

After rounding each item and then adding them together, they total $140.00, so Kara knows she has enough money for all three items. In the previous example, what we did is referred to as estimating or approximating the total cost of the purchase. This is done by rounding the cost of each item first, then adding the rounded numbers to get the estimated or approximated total.

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In the last example we chose to round to the nearest ten. When the choice is yours as to where to round a number, choose the place value that will give you the best estimate to suit your needs. Let's use the information in the last problem to show how choosing the place value can affect the result. You may want to re-read the problem, as we are only presenting the figures here. Actual Prices Rounded to nearest $100 $ 89.95 32.45 20.00 $ 142.40 $ 100.00 0.00 0.00 $ 100.00 Rounded to nearest $1 $ 90.00 32.00 20.00 $ 142.00

Notice that when choosing the larger place value our estimation is less accurate. In Kara's case she needs to be more accurate, but other situations may not require as great an accuracy. Sometimes we are instructed where to round a number, as in the following example. EXAMPLE 8: Darren has figured the total dollar amount he has to pay on his tax return, $137.14. The instructions tell him to enter the amount due, rounded to the nearest whole dollar. How much should Darren make out his check for? SOLUTION: In $137.14 the 7 is in the ones or whole dollar position. Following our steps for rounding, we reference the digit to the right, the 1. Since that digit is less than five, the 7 remains unchanged and the two decimal places are changed to zeros. Darren will write his check in the amount of $137.00.

Sometimes it is natural to round numbers in a particular manner. For instance, when paying taxes on a purchase, the amount of tax may contain a fraction of a cent. Since our smallest form of money is a cent or penny, the tax charged must be rounded to the nearest hundredth. This is illustrated in the following example. EXAMPLE 9: Keith stopped on the way home to buy Barb a bouquet of flowers. The bouquet was $7.95 and the tax on the sale actually came to $ 0.51675. What amount of tax will Keith actually pay once it is rounded to the nearest cent? SOLUTION: We know that there are one hundred pennies or cents in a dollar. So, a cent is one one-hundredth of a dollar. In $ 0.51675 the hundredths position is a 1. The first digit to the right, 6, tells us to increase the hundredths position to a 2, then, all digits to the right of the 2 are discarded. The amount of tax Keith will pay is 52 cents or $ 0.52.

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PRACTICE SET - 4 1) Ruth keeps track of her gasoline usage to the nearest tenth of a gallon. If the pump reads 13.571 gallons, what figure will she write in her log this week? 2) Linda purchased three items at the grocery store; bread @ $1.19, peanut butter @ $2.97, and jelly @ $1.33. Round the cost of each item to the nearest dime.

SOLUTIONS - 4 1) Ruth will write 13.6 gallons in her gasoline log. 2) bread peanut butter jelly $1.20 $3.00 $1.30

REVIEW TEST Round to the nearest ten: 1) 43 2) 87 3) 7886 4) 1473 _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ Round to the nearest hundred: 5) 782 6) 12,750 7) 1,375,343 8) 427 _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

Round off 314,639,548 to the nearest: 9) hundred thousand 11) million _______________ _______________ 10) ten million 12) thousand _______________ _______________

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Use your knowledge of rounding to answer the following questions. 13) The number of shares of stock traded on the U.S. Stock Exchange today was 3,529,712. When reporting this figure on the news they usually round to the nearest hundred thousand. What figure will they report tonight? 14) The population of a large midwestern city is 2,129,720. In their tour brochure they list their population rounded to the nearest thousand. When population will they list in their brochure?

Round to the nearest tenth: 15) 135.497 16) 47.63 17) 79.812 18) 8.74 _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

Round to the nearest thousandth: 19) 6.4755 20) 12.8357 21) 3.03492 22) 0.7963 _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

Round to the nearest hundredth: 23) 12.125 24) 0.258 25) 139.002 26) 19.019 _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

Round to the nearest thousand: 27) 89,026.22344 28) 78,502.77855 29) 10,355.38 30) 68,234,022.7 _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

Use your knowledge of rounding decimals to answer the following questions. 31) When Sarah fills her gas tank, she records her gasoline purchase to the nearest tenth of a gallon. If her last purchase was 10.395 gallons, what will Sarah write in her records? 32) Billie ran 5.75 miles on Monday, 9.82 miles on Wednesday, and 7.1 miles on Friday. Estimate the total distance she ran this week, to the nearest mile, by first rounding each day's run to the nearest whole mile.

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33) Deanna's income tax due this year is $1029.63. The instructions tell her to enter the amount due, rounded to the nearest whole dollar. How much should she make out her check for?

34) Linda totaled a mail-order purchase and used her calculator to figure out the tax due on her order. The amount on the calculator is 8.44675. What amount of tax should she enter on her order form after rounding to the penny?

SOLUTIONS - REVIEW TEST 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 40 90 7890 1470 800 12,800 1,375,300 400 9) 314,600,000 10) 310,000,000 11) 315,000,000 12) 314,640,000 13) 3,500,000 14) 2,130,000 15) 135.5 16) 47.6 17) 79.8 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) 25) 8.7 6.476 12.836 3.035 0.796 12.13 0.26 139.00 26) 27) 28) 29) 30) 31) 32) 33) 34) 19.02 89,000 79,000 10,000 68,234,000 10.4 23 miles $1030 $8.45