"To the nearest month" - dealing with real-life questions

[dekoyl]

For questions like "Find, to the nearest month, that the bug population meets 200" and the calculator yields 10.2098 months, would I write "11 months" as my final answer?

Similarly, if the question asks "Find the number of bugs at 5 months" and I get 50.851 bugs, do I write 50.851 bugs as my final answer? And would I then write 50 bugs if and only if it said "find to the nearest number of bugs"?

Thanks!

[hyperblade01]

Not 100% sure on the month thing, I think you round up because if its 10.2098, you hit 200 at .2098 into the 11th month.

With the bug thing, you can't have 0.851 bugs so you round down. If they ask for an AVERAGE then you can have decimals.

[plato]

The words and the context are significant - so read these carefully during reading time.

For questions like "Find, to the nearest month, that the bug population meets 200" and the calculator yields 10.2098 months, would I write "11 months" as my final answer?

Similarly, if the question asks "Find the number of bugs at 5 months" and I get 50.851 bugs, do I write 50.851 bugs as my final answer? And would I then write 50 bugs if and only if it said "find to the nearest number of bugs"?

Thanks!

"Find, to the nearest month, that the bug population meets 200" means to round off (up or down as per normal) to the nearest month and your answer would be 10.

"Find, to the nearest month, that the bug population first exceeds 200" would probably be written as "Find the minimum number of months for the bug population to exceed 200".  Here the answer would be 11.

In any case, if you are not absolutely sure, then give the decimal answer and then the rounded answer with an explanation why you rounded down or up.

Similar sort of reasoning would apply to a question on the number of bugs.

MODERATOR ACTION: Fixed quoting