Rounding Calculator
Round to a place value (nearest ten, tenth, hundredth…) or to a number of significant figures, and see which digit decided the rounding.
Answer
Step by step
- The hundredths digit is the last digit you keep.
- Look at the digit just to its right: 1.
- 1 is less than 5, so round down (leave the kept digit alone).
- Drop all digits after it: 3.14159 ≈ 3.14.
Answer: 3.14
Still stuck? Ask the tutor about these steps
How it works
next digit 5–9 → round up · 0–4 → round downFind the digit in the place you are rounding to. Look only at the digit immediately to its right.
If that digit is 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9, add one to the kept digit (this can carry: 2.96 to the nearest tenth is 3.0). If it is 0–4, leave it.
Significant figures count from the first non-zero digit, so leading zeros never count: 0.004567 to 2 s.f. is 0.0046.
This calculator rounds halves away from zero, the rule taught in most schools. Some software uses “round half to even” instead, so 2.5 becomes 2 there.
Worked example
Round 3.14159 to the nearest hundredth.
- Hundredths digit: 4 (3.14…)
- Next digit: 1 → round down
- 3.14
Frequently asked questions
How do you round to the nearest hundredth?
Keep two decimal places and look at the third. 5.678 → the third digit is 8, so round up to 5.68.
What are significant figures?
The digits that carry meaning in a number, counted from the first non-zero digit. 0.0520 has three: 5, 2 and the final 0.
Does 5 round up or down?
In school maths, 5 rounds up: 4.5 to the nearest whole number is 5.