ROUNDING OFF NUMBERS

AND SIGNIFICANT DIGITS

Rules for Rounding Off Numbers

Rule 1: Determine what your rounding digit is

and look at the digit to the right of it
(highlighted digit).If the highlighted digit is 1,
2, 3, 4 simply drop all digits to the right of
rounding digit.
Example:
3.423 may be rounded off to 3.42 when rounded off to the
nearest hundredths place.

3.423 may be rounded off to 3.4 when rounded off to the

nearest tenths place

3.423 may be rounded off to 3 when rounded off to the nearest

units place.
Rules for Rounding Off Numbers

Rule 2: Determine what your rounding digit is

and look at the digit to the right of it
(highlighted digit).If the highlighted digit is 5,
6, 7, 8, 9 add one to the rounding digit and
drop all digits to the right of rounding digit.
Example:
2.786 may be rounded off to 2.79 when rounded off to the nearest
hundredths place.
2.786 may be rounded off to 2.8 when rounded off to the nearest
tenths place.
2.786 may be rounded off to 3 when rounded off to the nearest
units place.
2.856 may be rounded off to 2.9 when rounded off to the nearest
tenths place.
Rules for Rounding Off Numbers

Exception to Rule 2: 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).
Example:
2.315 and 2.325 are both 2.32 when rounded off
to the nearest hundredths place.
ROUNDING OFF NUMBERS
AND SIGNIFICANT DIGITS
Rounding and Significant Digits
 Another consideration in rounding is when you
have to round to "an appropriate number of significant
digits". What are significant digits? Well, they're sort
of the "interesting" or "important" digits.
For example, 3.14159 has six significant digits (all
the numbers give you useful information) 1000 has one
significant digit (only the 1 is interesting; you don't
know anything for sure about the hundreds, tens, or
units places; the zeroes may just be placeholders; they
may have rounded something off to get this value)
1000.0 has five significant digits (the ".0" tells us
something interesting about the presumed accuracy of
the measurement being made: that the measurement is
accurate to the tenths place, but that there happen to be
zero tenths)
0.00035 has two significant digits (only the 3 and 5 tell
us something; the other zeroes are placeholders, only
providing information about relative size)
0.000350 has three significant digits (that last zero tells
us that the measurement was made accurate to that last
digit, which just happened to have a value of zero)
1006 has four significant digits (the 1 and 6 are
interesting, and we have to count the zeroes, because
they are between the two interesting numbers)
560 has two significant digits (the last zero is just a
placeholder)
560. (notice the "point" after the zero) has three
significant digits (the decimal point tells us that the
measurement was made to the nearest unit, so the zero
is not just a placeholder)
560.0 has four significant digits (the zero in the tenths
place means that the measurement was made accurate
to the tenths place, and that there just happen to be
zero tenths; the 5 and 6 give useful information, and
the other zero is between significant digits, and must
therefore also be counted)
If you need to express your answer as being "accurate
to" a certain place, here's how the language works with
the above examples:
3.14159 is accurate to the hundred-thousandths place
1000 is accurate to the thousands place
1000.0 is accurate to the tenths place
0.00035 is accurate to the hundred-thousandths place
0.000350 is accurate to the millionths place (note the
extra zero)
1006 is accurate to the units place
560 is accurate to the tens place
560. is accurate to the units place (note the decimal
point)
560.0 is accurate to the tenths place
Here are the basic rules for significant
digits:

1. All nonzero digits are significant.

2. All zeroes between significant digits are
significant.
3. All zeroes which are both to the right of the
decimal point and to the right of all non-zero
significant digits are themselves significant.
Here are some rounding examples; each number
is rounded to four, three, and two significant
digits.

Round 742,396 to four, three, and two significant

digits:
742,400 (four significant digits)
742,000 (three significant digits)
740,000 (two significant digits)
Here are some rounding examples; each number
is rounded to four, three, and two significant
digits.

Round 0.07284 to four, three, and two significant

digits:
0.07284 (four significant digits)
0.0728 (three significant digits)
0.073 (two significant digits)
Here are some rounding examples; each number
is rounded to four, three, and two significant
digits.

Round 231.45 to four, three, and two significant

digits:
231.5 (four significant digits)
231 (three significant digits)
230 (two significant digits)
 The real question comes in how to round answers to the
"appropriate" number of significant digits. The idea is this:
Suppose you measure a block of wood. The length is 5.6
inches, the width is 4.4 inches, and the thickness is 1.7
inches, at least as best you can tell from your tape measure.
To find the volume, you would multiply these three
dimensions, to get 41.888 cubic inches. But can you really,
with a straight face, claim to have measured the volume of
that block of wood to the nearest thousandth of a cubic
inch?!?
 Not hardly! Each of your measurements was accurate (as
far as you can tell) to two significant digits: your tape was
marked off in tenths of inches, and you wrote down the
closest tenth of an inch that you could see. So you cannot
claim five decimal places of accuracy, because none of your
measurements exceeded two digits of accuracy. You can only
claim two significant digits in your answer. In other words,
the "appropriate" number of significant digits is two, and you
would report (in your physics lab report, for instance) that
the volume of the block is 42 cubic inches, approximately.
Rounding Addition

How do you round when they give you a

bunch of numbers to add?
You would add (or subtract) the numbers as
usual, but then you would round the answer to
the same decimal place as the least-accurate
number.
 Round to the appropriate number of
significant digits:
13.214 + 234.6 + 7.0350 + 6.38
Looking at the numbers, the second
number, 234.6, is only accurate to the tenths
place; all the other numbers are accurate to a
greater number of decimal places.
 So my answer will have to be rounded to
the tenths place:
13.214 + 234.6 + 7.0350 + 6.38 = 261.2290

Rounding to the tenths place:

13.214 + 234.6 + 7.0350 + 6.38 = 261.2
Here is another example:
Round 1247 + 134.5 + 450 + 78 to the
appropriate number of significant digits.
Looking at each number, final answer
should be rounded off to the nearest tens place,
because 450 is only accurate to the tens place.
 First, add in the usual way:
1247 + 134.5 + 450 + 78 = 1909.5
...and then round the result to the tens place:
1247 + 134.5 + 450 + 78 = 1910
Rounding Multiplication

How do you round, when they give you

numbers to multiply (or divide)? You would
multiply (or divide) the numbers as usual, but
then you would round the answer to the same
number of significant digits as the least-
accurate number
 Simplify, and round to the appropriate number of
significant digits:
16.235 × 0.217 × 5
First, note that 5 has only one significant digit, so the final
answer should be rounded off to one significant digit. The
product is:
16.235 × 0.217 × 5 = 17.614975
...but since it can only claim one accurate significant digit,
17.614975 is rounded to 20, which is accurate to one significant
digit.
16.235 × 0.217 × 5 = 20
 Find the product of 0.00435 and 4.6 to the appropriate number
of digits.
First, multiply the two numbers:
0.00435 × 4.6 = 0.02001
By looking at the original numbers, it is noticeable that 4.6
has only two significant digits, so 0.02001 should be rounded off
to two significant digits. The 2 is the first significant digit, so
the 0 following it will have to be the second significant digits. In
other words, the answer should be reported as:
0.00435 × 4.6 = 0.020
 The answer should not be 0.02, because 0.02 has only one
significant digit; namely, the "2". The trailing zero in 0.020
indicates that "this is accurate to the thousandths place, or two
significant digits", and is therefore a necessary part of the
answer.
Just remember the difference:
For adding, use "least accurate place".
For multiplying, use "least number of significant digits".
 1. Round 785.840783 to the nearest digit and
determine the number of significant figures:
Nearest Rounding Significant
Off Figures
a. Hundreds
b. Tens
c. Thousandths
d. Ten Thousandths
e. Hundred
Thousandths
1.determine the number of significant figures:
2. Perform the following operations and report the
final answer to its appropriate significant digits.

a. 1.5 + 2.8 c. 3.89 x 8.765

b. 2.35 + 9.765 d. 53.7 x 45.891
For further reading, you may visit the following websites:

• https://www.eeducation.psu.edu/egee102/node/1899(Retrieved July
2018)
• http://www.purplemath.com/modules/rounding2.htm(Retrieved July
2018)
• http://tournas.rice.edu/website/documents/SignificantFigureRules1.pdf
(Retrieved July 2018)
• http://www.flinders.edu.au/slc_files/Documents/Red%20Guides/Roundi
ng%20numbers.pdf(Retrieved July 2018)