Rounding errors?

[Mongaa]

I just someone to clarify what's the best method to know whether to round up or down in number patterns.  I've noticed a lot that most of my errors in number patterns occur because I either round up when I'm not supposed to, or I round down when I'm not supposed to.  Here is an example, for part d.) of this question the answer that I got was 31874.8, which I rounded up to 34875, but the answer was actually 34874.

[Yendall]

For part C:

    You can't have .20 of a heating system, it is rounded appropriately to

d. The number of heating systems produced annually continues to follow this pattern. In total how many heating systems will they produce in the first ten years of operation?

You would use the same reasoning for part D:



Because you can't have .80 or 80% of a machine, it would round down. If you round up you're assuming that 20% of machine appears out of nowhere.



I think it depends on the application question, but the proportion at the end of a number indicates that it is a certain percentage. For example If it was income, you could round up. If it's a person, you must round down. I think.

[Mongaa]

Ahh I see, so you generally round down unless it asks you to?  What would be some other situations you would round up?

[Yendall]

Ahh I see, so you generally round down unless it asks you to?  What would be some other situations you would round up?

It depends on the context I think. I think when you are dealing with finance and it asks you to show the total earnings to the nearest dollar?

[Mongaa]

Yeah I think I get it thanks