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harik
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when to round off fractions... 13 Sep 2004, 11:28
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Hi guys,

I am buzzed off with rounding numerators or denominators in fractions. I didn't realise that this simple concept is going to be so confusing... :oops:

To simplify fractions, it is known that the numerator and the denominator can be rounded.. But, I find it difficult to find when to apply this as it gives different results in different scenarios...

E.g. In one of the questions, 5301/499863 can be rounded to 5000/500000 = 1/100 = 0.01 while the original fraction gives 0.0106. This is correct!!!

But, rounding 178001/13001 to 180000/10000 gives 18, while the original fraction gives just 13.84 !!! This is wrong!!!

So, what am I missing ? :stupid



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Alex_NL
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when to round off fractions... 13 Sep 2004, 13:57
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I am not really getting your point, but what I think you should look carefully in the question is whether they are asking for an approximate answer or for an accurate answer.

When you have to give an approximate answer you can round of, but just be careful to do it correctly.

When you have to give an accurate answer, you cannot round off and just give the answer from the round off solution.

I hope you understand what I am trying to explain and solves your question.

Regards,

Alex
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harik
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when to round off fractions... 13 Sep 2004, 22:38
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hi alex,

sorry I didn't make my question clear :oops: My concern was only regarding problems that ask for rounding off...

OG says that you have to glance the choices to determine the approximation that can be safely done... That answers when to approximate...

But, how to determine how much approximation is ok?
i.e, whether to round off the number to tenth digit or the hundredth digit..

Hope, I made things clear than before :roll:
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Hjort
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when to round off fractions... 13 Sep 2004, 22:45
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It depends in part on the spacing of the answer choices. If the values of the choices vary greatly, a rough approximation should suffice. If the values differ only slighly, one would need a closer approximatn.



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