Rancher: Did you get all 40 sheep? Sheep dog: Yup! Rancher: But I only count 37 sheep? Sheep dog: I rounded them up!
Sheep dogs are often enlisted by farmers to "round up" sheep. That is, the dogs help chase sheep to keep them in a herd so that no sheep wanders off or to move sheep from one location to another. In mathematics, we use the term "round up" to mean finding a nearby benchmark number (such as a multiple of 10) to round to. Numbers like 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. are generally thought of as round numbers that we are familiar with. Numbers like 31, 28, or 37 can be thought of as sharp numbers. Thus our sheep dog rounded the sharp number, 37, up to a round number, 40.
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AuthorChristina Lommatsch has a PhD in Mathematics Education. She loves to use humor in her teaching for both understanding and entertainment. Archives
September 2019
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