How Do You Round to Two Decimal Places?
To round to two decimal places, refer to the third decimal place. If this digit is 5 or higher, raise the second decimal place up by one; if it is 4 or lower, leave the second decimal place as is. Then, omit the third decimal place and all that follow.
Rounding is a simple process that involves looking one number to the right of the value to be rounded. A helpful phrase for this process is: “5 and above, give it a shove. 4 and below, let it go.” For example, if the number to be rounded to two decimal places is 2.938, it is rounded to 2.94 because the third decimal place (8) is higher than 4. If the number is 2.931, it is rounded to 2.93 because the third decimal place (1) is lower than 5. If the third decimal place is 0, or there is no third decimal place, the number is already rounded to two decimal places.
When rounding the number 9 up, extra vigilance is required. For example, rounding the number 5.498 to two decimal places raises the second decimal place (9) by 1, making it 10. The “1” in 10 is applied to the first decimal place (4). The final result is 5.50.
After rounding to the second decimal place, all numbers after the second decimal place are omitted. For example, if the number 15.673593 is rounded to two decimal places, it becomes 15.67; the remaining digits are omitted.
