Round to Nearest Non-Zero Number

Date: 11/13/2001 at 10:20:48
From: Rashad
Subject: Rounding numbers

How do you round this number to the nearest one non-zero number?

   47,859,600

Is it 48 million?

Date: 11/13/2001 at 12:28:55
From: Doctor Peterson
Subject: Re: Rounding numbers

Hi, Rashad.

Since 48,000,000 has TWO non-zero numbers, not one, it can't be the 
answer. 

The largest digit in the given number is the ten-millions digit, so 
you want to round to the nearest ten million, rather than the nearest 
million.

47,859,600 rounds to 50,000,000, to one significant digit.

Normally, we would say "round to one significant digit," but you 
probably have not seen that term. Your question means the same thing.

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