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Calculations 2
In this section we will look at
- rounding numbers up or down
- decimal places and significant figures
- scientific notation
- using calculators with fractions, rounding, significant figures
and scientific notation
- common mistakes with a calculator
Videos
All the examples in this worksheet and all the answers to questions
are available as answer sheets or videos.
1. Rounding numbers
Sometimes numbers are given very precisely, for example,
The population of Wales was estimated to be 2,999,319 in 2010 and we would
say this as 'two million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, three hundred
and nineteen' but this is not particularly useful as a week later this number will
be different. It is more useful to say the population of Cardiff in 2010 was about
three million 3,000,000.
Saying 'three million' instead of 'two million, nine hundred and ninety nine, three
hundred and nineteen is called rounding and in this case we have rounded to
the nearest million.
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
Here we have drawn 123 pounds on the number line and we can see that it is
nearer the number 120 than the number 130. So if we round to the nearest 10
it becomes 120 because it is nearest to 120 on the number line.
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
But if we draw the number 129 we can see that it is nearer to 130 than to 120
and so 129 rounded to the nearest 10 is 130 because it is the closest
multiple of ten on the number line.
10
The number 4 is nearer 0 than 10 but the number 6 is nearer 10 than 0. Although
5 is in the middle, we round it to 10.
Using the same ideas, if we have 22, its nearest multiple of 10 is 20 and if we
have 27, then to the nearest 10 it is 30.
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
27
rounded to nearest 10
30
Now we look at the number to the right (which we underline). If this underlined
number is 5 or higher we round the circled number up one to give 3. We then
set numbers to the right of this circled number to zero.
www.mathsupport.wordpress.com Jackie Grant, Birkbeck College, 2011
Creative Commons Copyright : Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
Another example:
We want to round 431 to the nearest ten. So we put a ring around the tens and
underline the number to the right
431
rounded to nearest 10
430
Is the underlined number five or more? No, so we don't round the 3 up, we just
leave it as 3, but we change all the numbers to the right to zero to get 430.
Rounding to the nearest 100
If we want to round a number to the nearest 100, then we ring the hundreds
and underline the tens. If there are more than five tens we round up, and if there
are less than five tens we round down. For example
237
581
200
600
141,937
rounded to nearest 10
141,940
141,937
141,900
142,000
140,000
100,000
141,937
141,937
141,937
DECIMAL PLACES
When dealing with decimals we use the words decimal point and decimal
place to help us describe the number. Consider the following number.
2.340587
1
decimal point
The decimal point is between the number 2 and 3. If we count the numbers
after the decimal point, this tells us the number of decimal places. In this case
we have 6 decimal places .
The number 3 is in the first decimal place
The number 4 is in the second decimal place
The number 0 is in the third decimal place
The number 5 is in the fourth decimal place
The number 8 is in the fifth decimal place
The number 7 is in the sixth decimal place
Try to work out how many decimal places the following numbers have:
1) 2.351
4) -6.2
2) 9.01356
5) 130.01
3) 14.2
6) 200.1002
The answers are: three, five, one, one, two and four.
Consider the number 2.340587, if we want to round this to one decimal place
we are asking if the number is nearer 2.3 or 2.4. We could draw a number line
to see which is nearer
2.3
2.31 2.32
2.33
2.34
2.35
2.36
2.37 2.38
2.39
2.4
2.340587
Or we could look at the number directly, circle the decimal place we are
rounding to and use the number to the right to tell us whether to round up or
round down. We use d.p. to mean decimal place. So if we round to 3 decimal
places we write 3 d.p.
2.340587
rounded to 5 d.p.
2.34059
2.340587
rounded to 4 d.p.
2.3406
2.340587
2.340587
2.340587
rounded to 3 d.p.
rounded to 2 d.p.
rounded to 1 d.p.
2.341
2.34
2.3
Notice that if we round to a d.p. the extra zeros to the right of the that decimal
place can be left out. But it is important to remember we cant do this when
rounding to tens, hundreds etc. Consider if we have 2,315 then rounded to the
nearest thousand is definitely not 2 but is 2,000.
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
In the same way as decimal places counts the numbers after the decimal point,
significant figures count the numbers from the first number in the expression.
Consider the population of Wales again,
second significant figure
seventh significant figure
2,999,319
first significant figure
2,999,319
rounded to 6 s.f.
2,999,320
2,999,319
rounded to 5 s.f.
2,999,300
2,999,319
rounded to 4 s.f.
2,999,000
2,999,319
rounded to 3 s.f.
3,000,000
2,999,319
rounded to 2 s.f.
3,000,000
2,999,319
rounded to 1 s.f.
3,000,000
Notice that we have a slightly special case here. Since there are three nines in
a row when we round to 3 s.f. from 7 s.f. we have to round up from 2,999,319 to
3,000,000. The same is true for rounding to 2 s.f. and 1 s.f.
The questions at the end of this worksheet include plenty of practice at
rounding significant figures and decimal places.
3. Scientific notation
www.mathsupport.wordpress.com Jackie Grant, Birkbeck College, 2011
Creative Commons Copyright : Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
and if we now consider 0.00003193 we see that the decimal point has to move
five places to the right, and so the power is -5.
-1 -2 -3 -4 -5
Once we are able to put any number into scientific notation we can just do the
opposite to get a number from scientific notation into decimal format.
www.mathsupport.wordpress.com Jackie Grant, Birkbeck College, 2011
Creative Commons Copyright : Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
For example
1)
2)
3)
4)
4. Using calculators
www.mathsupport.wordpress.com Jackie Grant, Birkbeck College, 2011
Creative Commons Copyright : Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
Here we continue from the work in 02 Calculations 1 (so we assume that you
are using a scientific algebraic calculator for example any of the Casio FX
range). We first look at using rounding and significant figures and then how to
type numbers in scientific notation in calculators
Significant figures and rounding
When using calculators for complicated calculations it is usual to get an
answer that has as many significant figures as a calculator will allow.
For example 1 inch = 2.54 cm, so 1 cm = 1 2.54 inches and if we enter this into
a calculator we get an answer as 0.3937007874015..... and the number will be
longer if your calculator allows more numbers to be displayed. This reason is
one of the reasons it is important to be able to correctly round numbers.
As a rule of thumb 3 significant figures are good enough for most calculations
(so in this case we would write 1 cm = 0.394 inches) but check or ask to see
how many significant figures a particular calculation needs.
Scientific notation
You can test how your calculator displays numbers in scientific notation by
entering 1,000,000,000 x 1,000,000,000, which should give an answer of
To enter a number in scientific notation you should use the button [EXP] or
[
type
4)
2)
5)
3)
6)
Generally the more maths you practice the easier it gets. If you make mistakes
dont worry. I generally find that if I make lots of mistakes I understand the
subject better when I have finished. If you want to see videos explaining these
ideas and showing the answers visit www.mathsupport.wordpress.com
5) 0.219
2) 1,579
6) 0.00005007
3) 0.00546
7) 999.9
4) 11
8) 0.000100012
5)
2)
6)
3)
7)
4)
8)
2)
3)
6)
4)
7)
5)
8)
. If the
, where
the symbol r=radius, and =3.14, calculate the volume of a single bacteria in
and give your answer to 3 s.f in scientific notation
5) For certain drugs the dosage for children will depend on their weight and
their temperature. For a fever less than
weight of the child. Above
child. The dose should be taken every 8 hours. If a child weighs 11kg and has a
temperature of