Question

Tim thinks of a number.

His number rounded to 2 decimal places is 5.46
What is the smallest possible number Tim could have thought of ?

Answer 1

If Tim rounded his number to 5.46, the smallest number he could've thought of would be 5.455. This is because if the third decimal digit of a number is five or greater, the second can be rounded up.

I believe this is correct.

Answer 2

5.455

Explanation:

Given parameters

A number rounded to 2 decimal places is 5.46

Required:

The smallest possible number the rounded number could assume

Provided that the number was rounded to 2 decimal places, then the smallest number if could be must be in 3 decimal places and must be smaller than the approximated result.

From the rule of approximation, digjts greater than 4 are rounded up to 1 while others are rounded down to 0.

Having said this, the least approximation that could have occurred is 0.005

Hence, the least number it could be is given as

5.46 - 0.005.

= 5.455