Question

A parking lot covers 32,420 square feet. What is its area to the nearest thousand feet? Explain how you round the number.

Answer 1

The thousands place (1000) is the fourth number to the left of the decimal, so round that one either up or down based on the number just one spot closer to the decimal, in this case, the hundreds place (100).

so we have 32,420

we can ignore the numbers that are going to become zeros as a result of the rounding . .

32,400

let's round 32,XXX either up or down based on the value in the hundreds place. if that value is 5 or greater, than we round up. if it is less than 5, than we round down.

4 is in the hundreds place, so we round down

32,000 is the answer