Round 74.9963 to 2 decimal places.
The Correct Answer and Explanation is :
To round 74.9963 to 2 decimal places, follow these steps:
- Identify the digit in the second decimal place: In the number 74.9963, the digit in the second decimal place is 9 (since the first two decimal places are 9 and 9).
- Look at the digit in the third decimal place: The third decimal place is 6. This is important because it determines whether we round up or down.
- Apply rounding rules:
- If the digit to the right of the place you’re rounding to is 5 or higher, round the last kept digit up.
- If it’s 4 or lower, leave the last kept digit as is. Since the third decimal digit is 6 (which is more than 5), we round the second decimal place 9 up to 10. However, because 9 becomes 10, we carry 1 to the left to the first decimal place. This makes the first decimal place become 10 as well.
- Final result: The number rounded to two decimal places becomes 75.00.
Explanation of Rounding:
Rounding numbers is a technique used to simplify numbers, making them easier to work with while maintaining a level of precision appropriate to the context. When rounding to 2 decimal places, you limit the number to two digits after the decimal point. This is common in financial and scientific contexts where clarity and simplicity are critical.
For example, in currency, you usually deal with cents, so rounding to two decimal places is necessary to express amounts like $1.75 or $45.67 accurately. Similarly, when working with measurements, rounding helps communicate results without unnecessary detail while keeping the number precise enough for practical purposes.
By rounding 74.9963 to 75.00, the slight difference from the original value becomes negligible for most practical uses.