MED 03

• ROUNDING NUMBERS
• SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
• SUMMATION NOTATION
Rounding
numbers
 What is "Rounding" ?

 Rounding means making a number simpler but keeping its value close to what it was.

 The result is less accurate, but easier to use.

Example: 73 rounded to the nearest ten is 70, because 73 is 73 70

closer to 70 than to 80. But 76 goes up to 80. 76 80
 COMMON METHOD
There are several methods for rounding . Here we look the common method, the one used by
most people:

“5 or more rounds up”

4 is less than 5
To tens: 714
So I stays same
To tens: 715
5 is “5 or more”

So 1 increase to 2
 HOW TO ROUNDED
NUMBERS
 Decide which is the last digit to keep

 Leave it the same if the next digit is less than 5 (this is called rounding down)

• But increase it by 1 if the next digit is 5 or more (this is called rounding up)

Example: Round 74 to the nearest 10

We want to keep the "7" (it is in the 10s position)
The next digit is "4" which is less than 5, so no change is needed to "7"
Answer: 70

(74 gets "rounded down")

Example: Round 86 to the nearest 10
We want to keep the "8"
The next digit is "6" which is 5 or more, so increase the "8" by 1 to "9"
Answer: 90

(86 gets "rounded up")

When the first digit removed is 5 or more, increase the last digit remaining by 1.
 WHY DOES GOES UP?

 5 is in the middle ... so we could go up or down. But we need a method that everyone
agrees to.

Think about sport: we should have the same number of players on each team, right?
 Rounding Decimals

First work out which number will be left when we finish.

• Rounding to tenths means to leave one number after the decimal point.

• Rounding to hundredths means to leave two numbers after the decimal point.
To round to "so many decimal places" count that many digits from the decimal point:
 ROUNDING WHOLE NUMBERS

We may want to round to tens, hundreds, etc, In this case we replace the removed digits with zero.
 Rounding to Significant Digits

 To round to "so many" significant digits, count digits from left to right, and then round off from there
SCIENTIFIC
NOTATION
 What is scientific Notation?

is a way of writing very large or very small numbers. A number is

written in scientific notation when a number between 1 and 10 is
multiplied by a power of 10. For example, 650,000,000 can be
written in scientific notation as 6.5 ✕ 10^8.