Question

Jay thinks of a whole number. He rounds the number to the nearest thousand. It is 5,000. He rounds the same number to the nearest ten. It is 4,950. What could Jay’s number be?

Answer 1

Jay's number must be between 4,945 and 4,954 because it rounds to 5,000 to the nearest thousand and to 4,950 to the nearest ten.

Step-by-step explanation:

Jay is thinking of a number that when rounded to the nearest thousand becomes 5,000 and when rounded to the nearest ten becomes 4,950. Thus, to round to 5,000, Jay's number could be as low as 4,500 or as high as 5,499. However, since rounding to the nearest ten yields 4,950, we know Jay's number must be closer to 4,950 than to any other ten. Therefore, Jay's number is likely in the range of 4,945 to 4,954, since any number in this range would round down to 4,950 when rounding to the nearest ten and up to 5,000 when rounding to the nearest thousand.