On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:59:23 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

On Feb 15, 8:50*pm, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:26:19 -0800 (PST), "



wrote:
On Feb 15, 4:01 pm, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:56:24 -0800 (PST), "

wrote:
On Feb 15, 2:52 pm, Hawke wrote:

What ignorant dolts like you don't know is that many times people give
round numbers in a presentation. So 145 million might be called 150
million. I understand rounding is beyond your understanding. But I also
understand that Nader's statistics are going to be accurate while you
get just about everything wrong.

Hawke

The general rule when rounding a number ending in 5 is to round to an
even number. *So 145 million would be rounded to 140 million. *155
million would be rounded to 160 million. *At least that is what is
taught at most grade schools.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dan

Nope. Not for around 50 years. That could be 45 years, or 54 years...

--
Ed Huntress

From Wiki.

* * * * * * * * * * *Dan

A tie-breaking rule that is even less biased is round half to even,
namely

* ** If the fraction of y is 0.5, then q is the even integer nearest
to y.

Thus, for example, +23.5 becomes +24, +22.5 becomes +22, -22.5 becomes
-22, and -23.5 becomes -24.

This method also treats positive and negative values symmetrically,
and therefore is free of overall bias if the original numbers are
positive or negative with equal probability. In addition, for most
reasonable distributions of y values, the expected (average) value of
the rounded numbers is essentially the same as that of the original
numbers, even if the latter are all positive (or all negative).
However, this rule will still introduce a positive bias for even
numbers (including zero), and a negative bias for the odd ones.

This variant of the round-to-nearest method is also called unbiased
rounding, convergent rounding, statistician's rounding, Dutch
rounding, Gaussian rounding, odd-even rounding[2] or bankers'
rounding. This is widely used in bookkeeping.

This is the default rounding mode used in IEEE 754 computing functions
and operators.

Hey, Dan, IEEE isn't "most grade schools." Here's most grade schools:

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/58970.html

And that's what my wife teaches to her 3rd graders, as do most
elementary teachers in the US...as they have for decades.

--
Ed Huntress

Maybe that is what they teach in New Jersey. But Wiki says the rule
I quoted is taught in grade schools.

Yeah? Well, they're wrong. This is how it's really taught:

http://www.myschoolhouse.com/courses/O/1/16.asp
http://www.mathcats.com/grownupcats/...krounding.html
http://mathandreadinghelp.org/elemen...g_numbers.html
http://www.wyzant.com/Help/Math/Elem...g_Numbers.aspx
http://www.aaamath.com/g32_rox1.htm

It certainly is within the
capability of kids in the fifth grade and is what I learned in grade
school. Do you really think it is that hard an idea to learn?

I said nothing about that. I said that what YOU said is incorrect --
they don't teach that in "most grade schools."

--
Ed Huntress


Dan