Rounding – Significant Figures – Demonstration

This resource provides animated demonstrations of the mathematical method.

Check animations and delete slides not needed for your class.
 Which of these might you expect to hear?

What might you hear instead?

I ran 13.5627 km today!

There are 19,482 people in my city.

I’m 15 years, 9 months, 2 weeks,

3 days and 7 hours old.

20 million, 220 thousand, 5 hundred

and sixteen people watched the
football on Saturday.

I make sure to drink 4.482 litres of

water every day!
To make communication easier we often want to round numbers.

There are 19,482 people in my city.

Which digits in this number can we replace with 0s and

still understand the approximate value?

19,482

10,000 19,000 19,400

Which rounded numbers do you think are fair representations?
We can round numbers according to significant (important) figures.

Every digit after the first non-zero digit is significant.

2nd significant figure
1st significant figure 3rd significant figure

2863

0.0046836
1st significant figure 3rd significant figure
2nd significant figure
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 1 significant figure.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

525
500

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 1 significant figure.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

658
700

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 1 significant figure.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

52613
50000

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 1 significant figure.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

0.0463
0.05

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

252
250

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

4953
5000

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

72641
73000

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

0.005277
0.0053

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 3 significant figures.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

8205
8210

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 3 significant figures.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

60559
60600

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 3 significant figures.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

1.473
1.47

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 3 significant figures.

Stay or round up?

CHECK

0.408522
0.409

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up)
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures. Round these numbers to 1 significant figure.

Stay or round up? 6722 541

CHECK
7000 500
4953 Round these numbers to 2 significant figures.

6843 34637
5000
6800 35000
Round these numbers to 3 significant figures.

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
35268 67952
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up) 35300 68000
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
 DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures. Round these numbers to 1 significant figure.

Stay or round up? 5.42 7.501

CHECK
5 8
4953 Round these numbers to 2 significant figures.

3.662 0.0482
5000
3.7 0.048
Round these numbers to 3 significant figures.

Cut’ the number.

Use the first cut digit to check
0.58251 0.3065
whether to round UP.
member: a 5 means the last digit is rounded up) 0.583 0.307
f necessary complete the number with zeros.
DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures. Complete the tables.

Stay or round up?

1 sf 2 sf
CHECK 448
6053
4953 355
82854
5000
1 sf 2 sf 3 sf
5945
3.068
0.05592
0.40528
DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures. Complete the tables.

Stay or round up?

1 sf 2 sf
CHECK 448 400 450
6053 6000 6100
4953 355 400 360
82854 80000 83000
5000
1 sf 2 sf 3 sf
5945
3.068
0.05592
0.40528
DEMO Rounding using Significant Figures.
Round this number to 2 significant figures. Complete the tables.

Stay or round up?

1 sf 2 sf
CHECK 448 400 450
6053 6000 6100
4953 355 400 360
82854 80000 83000
5000
1 sf 2 sf 3 sf
5945 6000 5900 5950
3.068 3 3.1 3.07
0.05592 0.06 0.056 0.0559
0.40528 0.4 0.41 0.405
 Questions?
Comments?
Suggestions?

…or have you found a mistake!?

Any feedback would be appreciated .

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