I'm pretty old myself (39), but I have seen calculators that have something
called 5/4 rounding.  Being uneducated (no degree) I'm not sure what that is
about.  Remember the good ole RPN calculators?  If you could understand how
to use one of those, you were well on your way to being a FORTH programmer.

Michael Brown
Instant Net Solutions
www.KillerPCs.net




> Hi Michael, yep, darn right, half the people in
> the world (including me!) have been rounding wrongly
> their entire lives. Very scary. There is and can only
> be one correct way of rounding decimal numbers...
>
> Here is an example, assuming rounding to 3 decimal
> places, that is 1000 combinations, from 000 to 999.
>
> 000 to 499 (first half), 500 to 999 (second half).
> There are the first 500 combinations in the first
> half, and the second 500 combination in the second
> half.
>
> All my life I have been rounding at 555, under the
> false impression that 5 is "half way" in decimal
> terms... Wow.
>
> I asked my 26 yr old science-degreed girlfriend how
> to round and she looked at me like I was stupid.
> "5 or more, round up". She was taught correctly.
>
> Now I'm wondering if it is mainly us old-timers
> from the dawn of pocket calculators age that were
> taught wrong?? Any thoughts, older people??
> :o)
> -Roman
>
>
> michael brown wrote:
> >
> > > roman,
> > >
> > > i was taught to round up if it's >= 1/2.  little different than you
> > system - little easier
> > >
> > > > 3.12471 = 3.125
> > > > 3.12441 = 3.124
> > > > 3.1245551 = 3.124
> > > > 3.1245556 = 3.125
> > >
> > > 3.1247 = 3.125   7 >= 5 round up
> > > 3.1244 = 3.124   4 <  5 truncate
> > > 3.1245 = 3.125   5 >= 5 round up
> > > 3.1245 = 3.125   5 >= 5 round up
> > >
> > > ie: i only check the 4th digit. if it's >= 5 round up.  if not
truncate.
> > >
> > > -pete
> >
> > Finally some one got it right!  ;-D  Way to go Pete.  If you want to
round
> > to N decimal places then look at position N+1.  If position (N+1) >4
then
> > increment position(N).  That's all there is to it.  You don't have to
look
> > at anything else.   Hope this helps.  TTYL
>
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