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"How is 5 + (372 - 1)³ = 111.8? Surely, it's 1.128 or have I recalculated it wrong?"

1 Answer

4 votes

Final answer:

The correct calculation for 5 + (372 - 1)³ should include evaluating inside the parentheses, then cubing the result, and properly rounding to the correct number of significant figures according to the initial numbers.

Step-by-step explanation:

The calculation of 5 + (372 - 1)³ should be approached step by step. First, you calculate the value inside the parentheses, which is 372 - 1, yielding 371. Next, you raise this result to the power of three, 371 cubed, which you can calculate using a calculator or through long multiplication. However, it's important to understand that calculators perform calculations without considering significant figures. As a result, after obtaining a calculator answer, you need to round it according to the significant figures of the numbers you started with. In your case, the numbers 5 and 372 dictate the precision of your final answer. If your calculator produces an answer in the hundredths place, such as 201.867, you should round this to 201.87 when limiting to the hundredths place, since the 7 after the hundredth indicates that you should round up.

User David Nedrow
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