How do you round 24982 correct to 1 significant figure?

1 Answer
Anirudh E.
Aug 31, 2017

#20,000# (with no decimal at the end of the number).

Explanation:

Let's begin by establishing #24,982# as having #5# significant figures (It has no decimals, and no zeros. We can therefore count the number of digits, and this is #5#).

If we were asked, therefore, to round to the first significant figure, then we would be talking about the very first digit, which is the #2#.
So this digit may or may not change, by #+1# or not at all.

If we round up, then the answer is #30,000#, but if we were to round down, the answer would be #20,000#; If we want to determine which one is correct, we have to look at the second digit of the original number, which is #4#. Since the second digit is less than #5#, we can round down, so the answer would have to be #20,000#.

For an example of a similar situation, see this image:

wikihow.com

I hope that helps!

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