How to round to the nearest tenth

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where precision matters, like when balancing your budget or calculating measurements for a project? Perhaps you were checking your test scores, and noticed a number like 86.74, wondering how to round it for clarity. Rounding can seem tricky at first, but mastering it can provide clarity in various scenarios, from academic settings to everyday tasks. Today, we’ll break down the steps to round to the nearest tenth, ensuring you have the confidence to tackle any rounding challenge that comes your way.

To round to the nearest tenth, look at the digit in the hundredths place (the second digit after the decimal point). If it is 5 or higher, increase the tenths place (the first digit after the decimal point) by 1. If it is less than 5, keep the tenths place the same.

To elaborate, rounding to the nearest tenth involves focusing on the decimal portion of a number. First, identify the tenths and hundredths places; for example, in the number 12.36, the tenths digit is 3, and the hundredths digit is 6. The rule is simple: if the hundredths digit is 5 or greater, round up. In this case, since 6 is greater than 5, you increase the tenths digit of 3 by 1, resulting in 4. Therefore, 12.36 rounds to 12.4. Conversely, if you have a number like 12.32, where the hundredths digit is 2 (less than 5), you keep the tenths digit unchanged, leading to 12.3 as the rounded result. Applying this method will help you easily round any number to the nearest tenth facing you in various everyday situations.