Rounding and Estimating Numbers
Rounding Numbers to the Greatest Place Value
ROUNDING NUMBER TO THE GREATEST OR HIGHEST PLACE VALUE.
What does greatest place value mean?
THE GREATEST OR HIGHEST PLACE VALUE IS THE DIGIT FARTHEST TO THE LEFT IN A NUMBER. IT COULD BE ANY NUMBER EXCEPT ZERO.
LOOK AT THE NUMBER 3654. The 3 is the greatest or highest place value number because it is the digit farthest to the left. The 3 is in the thousands place.
Look at the number again with a zero. 03654. The 3 is still the largest place value number because zero does not count.
Following the rules for Rounding
After finding the greatest place value number you can use the rules for rounding and round the number.
Example 1: round 24,356 the greatest place value.
Look to the right of the number in the ten
thousands place. It's a 4, so Round down.
24,356 is rounded to 20,000 because the highest
place value of that number is in the ten thousand
place.
Example-2: round 8,636 to the greatest place value.
8 is the number farthest to the left so it is the greatest place value number and it is in the thousands place
So look to the right of the number in the thousands
place. It's a 6, so round up.
8,636 is rounded up to 9,000 because the highest place value of that number is the 8 in the thousands place.