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Rounding Numbers

In the world of rapid mathematics it can be quite useful to round numbers up when doing calculations.

For example many people would use ? (Pi) rounded to 3, or 3.14 which is all well and good for theoretical purposes, but let’s try it out when calculating the circumference of Mars when a space ship is going to land on it.

Google search tells me the radius of Mars is 3397 kilometres, or 3,397,000 metres.

To calculate the circumference of Mars, we use the formula

C = 2 X ? X R

Where C is the circumference

R is the radius.

Let’s use these values of Pi as our radius:

  1. 3
  2. 3.1
  3. 3.14
  4. 3.142
  5. 3.141592653

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  1. C = 2 X 3 X 3397000                          20382000 metres
  2. C = 2 X 3.1 X 3397000                       21061400 metres
  3. C = 2 X 3.14 X 3397000                     21333160 metres
  4. C = 2 X 3.142 X 3397000                   21346748 metres
  5. C = 2 X 3.141592653 X 3397000       21343980.484482 metres

Now, imagine if you were on a space mission and you were plotting where to the land the space craft, but accidentally the value of 3 was used for Pi rather than the more accurate one!

If we take the most accurate one and subtract the least accurate result from it, we get

961980.484482.

That equates to over 961 KILOMETRES off target!

Sometimes rounding mightn’t always be the best option!

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 8:30 am and is filed under Vedic Maths. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Rounding Numbers”

  1. Lukhman Hakkim.M on December 20th, 2009 at 6:40 am

    Dear Kevin O' Conner,

    Yoursite heps Me andHelping Mea lot Well If i would haveseen in my childhood now i would havebecome a maths genious, Now already i have grown up….

    Regards,
    Lukhman Hakkim.M

  2. How do you round numbers?
    I just had a question about calculating molar mass. I seem to generally understand the basic calculating and everything, but when it comes to finding the masses of the elements from the periodic table, I can't seem to round them correctly. I'll get answers pretty much similar to the answers from the book but how are you supposed to round the masses? Because I don't think I'm doing it right and that's why my answers are a little off.

  3. Rounding numbers???!!!?

  4. ohh GREAT.
    Its fun reading such a great stuff

  5. I am using excel in google docs to add numbers together. When I input numbers (16.64) it rounds it to 17 so that the final sum is not correct. How do I turn this off?
    When I select the individual cell in the formula bar it reads the correct number (16.64).
    Thanks!

  6. Hi,
    Delighted this post like writing of head which is increasingly nice.
    Best Regards

  7. I can't think of an equation that works yet, but if you tell us what language you are programming in, we should be able to come up with a subroutine

  8. Hi! Although I 'm using fractioning method for approximate values ,It's really best to know a new and simple method being pro mathematics.

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