Question

UPPER AND LOWER BOUNDS

a house is valued at £210000 correct to 2 significant figures
a) what is the lowest possibly value of the house
b) what is the highest possible value of the house

Answer 1

9514 1404 393

Answer:

• lowest: £205000
• highest: £214999

Explanation:

Essentially, you add or subtract 5 in the place where there would be a third significant digit.

Technically, you can't add 5,000, because that would round up to £220,000, so you can only add 4,999. (If you feel the need to take it to the penny, you can also add 0.99.)

a) lowest: £210,000 -5,000 = £205,000

b) highest: £210,000 +4,999 = £214,999