What is 52,437 rounded to the nearest thousand?
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
Correct Answer: 52,437 rounded to the nearest thousand is 52,000.
Explanation:
Rounding a number to the nearest thousand means finding the multiple of 1,000 that is closest to the original number. To do this, the digit in the hundreds place must be examined.
Start by identifying the thousands and hundreds digits of the number 52,437:
- The thousands digit is 2 (in the “52,000” part).
- The hundreds digit is 4 (in the “400” part).
The rounding rule is as follows:
- If the digit in the hundreds place is 5 or more, increase the thousands digit by 1 and replace all digits to the right with zeros.
- If the digit in the hundreds place is 4 or less, keep the thousands digit the same and change all digits to the right to zeros.
Since the hundreds digit is 4, which is less than 5, the thousands digit remains the same. All digits after the thousands place are replaced with zeros.
Thus:
- 52,437 becomes 52,000 when rounded to the nearest thousand.
This process simplifies numbers for estimation or mental math. Rounding is especially useful when dealing with large numbers in real-world contexts, such as estimating population sizes, distances, or financial figures. It helps provide a general sense of quantity without needing exact values.
In this case, 52,437 is closer to 52,000 than to 53,000, so the correct rounded value is 52,000.
