What is 5.0999 to the nearest tenth?

Question

We are learning how to round to the nearest tenth and I find it quite easy but I got stumped at this one, if you could explain it to me I'm not even looking for an answer any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. (The question is what is 5.0999 rounded to the nearest tenth?)

Answer 1

All you have to do is decide is the number closer to 5.0 or 5.1? It's only 0.0001 away from 5.1 but it's 0.0999 away from 5.0. So 5.1 is the answer. Another way to do it is to move the decimal point 4 places to the right: 50999. The figure next to 5 is in the thousands position. So we ask: which is the nearest 1000? We have a choice between 50000 (50 thousand) or 51000 (51 thousand). 50999 is only 1 away from 51000 but 999 away from 50000. Obviously 1 is closer: 50999+1=51000, so 51000 is nearer. Now move the decimal point 4 places to the left: 5.1 is therefore the nearest 10th.