Question

What is a reasonable estimate for 786 x 217?

Answer 1

Answer:

160,000

Step-by-step explanation:

Estimations like this usually involve rounding to easy numbers to multiply. You could do this in a number of ways depending on your ability to keep track of factors in your head, but the easiest way (and what I assume your teacher is looking for) is to round to the nearest, largest-power-of-ten, which in this case is the hundreds. 786 is closest to 800, and 217 is closest to 200, and 200*800 is 160,000. No calculator required is the key. You can also be slightly more sure that this is reasonable because you rounded up for one and down for the other, approximately by the same amount, too.