Rounding to Nearest Thousand

Date: 09/07/2001 at 20:04:58
From: carol
Subject: Rounding numbers

What is 46 rounded to the nearest thousand?

Date: 09/07/2001 at 23:15:10
From: Doctor Peterson
Subject: Re: Rounding numbers

Hi, Carol.

Well, it's between 0 and 1000; which is closer?

It may surprise you that you would ever round a number to zero, but 
think about what rounding means. If we are rounding to the nearest 
thousand, that means we don't care about smaller differences; 46 is 
small enough compared to 1000 that it's not worth noticing. If you 
rounded the heights of mountains to the nearest 1000 feet, the state 
of Delaware would be at sea level. Compared to Colorado, it is; that 
doesn't mean, however, that it floods at high tide!

- Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/