Rounding

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From: Marc Afifi (marc_afifi@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Sep 29 2000 - 21:07:33 PDT 

Message-ID: <20000930040733.26018.qmail@web210.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 21:07:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Marc Afifi <marc_afifi@yahoo.com>
Subject: Rounding

I think, as scientists, if we round the average 2.5
somethings to one significant digit then we find that
the answer should be 2 somethings. At least this is
what is taught in college texts. The idea is that if
the number we are rounding is followed by exactly 5
and nothing but a 5 then half the time we should round
up and half the time leave it alone. I have only seen
texts which suggest rounding up when the number being
rounded is odd and leaving it alone when the number
being rounded is even, though this is certainly
arbitrary and there is no reason we should not round
up when the number being rounded is even and leave it
alone when the number being rounded is odd. In this
case, 2 and 3 somethings round to 2 somethings if we
follow the normal convention regarding rounding.

Your thoughts?

-Marc

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