Expert: John Zalewski - 8/9/2011

Question
rounding numbers to the nearest hundredth and the nearest thousands

Answer
Hello, Rosa.

Let's take a number, say, .12348.


To round to the nearest hundredth, take a look at the number in the thousandth place. The thousandths place is the third number to the right of the decimal point (tenths, hundredths, thousandths, ten-thousandths, etc.).

If the number in the thousandths place is 5 or higher, then the number rounds up to the nearest thousandth. If it's 4 or less, the number rounds down.

In our example, because 3 is less than 5, the number rounds down, to give you an answer of .12, or .12000.

If the number was, for example, .575, then you'd round up to .58.

Rounding to the nearest thousandth is the same thing, except you need to look at the fourth digit in the number, the ten-thousandth place, to determine whether or not to round up or down.

For our example, rounding to the nearest thousandth place would yield an answer of .123, or .12300, since 4 is less than 5.

If the number was .6738, then you'd round up to .674, because 8 is 5 or greater.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
John