How to round numbers correctly and where in life this skill can become useful

Many people are interested in how to round numbers. This need often arises in people who associate their lives with accounting or other activities where calculations are required. Rounding can be done up to whole, tenths and so on. And you need to know how to do it correctly, so that calculations are less accurate.

And what is a round number in general? This is the one that ends at 0 (for the most part). In everyday life, the ability to round numbers greatly facilitates shopping. Standing at the cash desk, you can roughly estimate the total cost of purchases, compare how much is a kilogram of the same goods in different weight packages. With numbers reduced to a convenient form, it is easier to make oral calculations, without resorting to the help of a calculator.

Why are numbers rounded?

Any figures the person is inclined to round off in those cases when it is necessary to carry out more simplified operations. For example, a melon weighs 3.150 kilograms. When a person will tell his friends about how many grams has a southern fruit, he can be considered a not very interesting interlocutor. Significantly laconic phrases like "Here I bought a three-kilogram melon" without understanding any unnecessary details.

It is interesting that even in science there is no need to always deal with the most accurate numbers. And if we are talking about periodic infinite fractions, which have the form 3.33333333 ... 3, then this becomes impossible. Therefore, the most logical option is the usual rounding of them. As a rule, the result after this is distorted slightly. So, how to round numbers?

A few important rules when rounding up numbers

So, if you want to round the number, is it important to understand the basic principles of rounding? This is an operation to change the decimal fraction, aimed at reducing the number of decimal places. To implement this action, you need to know several important rules:

1. If the number of the desired digit is within 5-9, rounding is carried out in a larger direction.
2. If the number of the desired digit is within 1-4, rounding is performed in the lower direction.

For example, we have the number 59. We need to round it. To do this, you need to take the number 9 and add one to it, to make it 60. That's the answer to the question of how to round numbers. Now consider special cases. Actually, we figured out how to round up the number to tens using this example. Now it remains only to use this knowledge in practice.

How to round up a number to integers

Very often it happens that there is a need to round off, for example, a number of 5.9. This procedure is not very difficult. We need to lower the comma first, and before our eyes the number 60 is already known to us when rounding. Now put the comma in place, and we get 6.0. And since zeros in decimal fractions, as a rule, drop, we get as a result the number 6.

A similar operation can be performed with more complex numbers. For example, how to round off numbers of type 5.49 to integers? Here everything depends on what goals you set for yourself. In general, according to the rules of mathematics, 5.49 is still not 5.5. Therefore, it can not be rounded up. But you can round it to 5.5, after which it becomes legal to round to 6. But this trick does not always work, so you need to be extremely careful.

How correctly to round numbers after a decimal to tenths?

In principle, an example of correct rounding up to a decimal number has already been considered above, so now it is important to display only the basic principle. In fact, everything happens in approximately the same way. If the number that is at the second position after the comma is within 5-9, then it is generally removed, and the figure in front of it increases by one. If less than 5, then this number is removed, and the previous one remains in its place.

For example, when rounding off the number of 4.59 to 4.6, the number "9" goes away, and one adds to the five. But when rounding off, the 4.41 unit is lowered, and the four remain in the non-winter form.

How do marketers use the inability of the mass consumer to round figures?

It turns out that most people in the world do not have the habit of assessing the real value of the product, which is actively exploited by marketers. Everyone knows the slogans of shares like "Buy for only 9.99". Yes, we consciously understand that this is essentially ten dollars. Nevertheless, our brain is arranged so that it only perceives the first digit. So an uncomplicated operation of bringing the number into a convenient form should become a habit.

Very often rounding allows you to better evaluate the intermediate successes, expressed in numerical form. For example, a person began to earn 550 dollars a month. The optimist will say that it is almost 600, a pessimist - that it is slightly more than 500. It seems that there is a difference, but it is more pleasant for the brain to "see" that the object has achieved something more (or vice versa).

You can give a huge number of examples, when the ability to round up is incredibly useful. It is important to be resourceful and, if possible, to be loaded with unnecessary information. Then success will be immediate.