Rounding Rules
Because significance arithmetic involves rounding, it is useful to understand a specific rounding rule that is often used when doing scientific calculations: the round-to-even rule (also called banker's rounding). It is especially useful when dealing with large data sets.
This rule helps to eliminate the upwards skewing of data when using traditional rounding rules. Whereas traditional rounding always rounds up when the following digit is 5, bankers sometimes round down to eliminate this upwards bias.
See the article on rounding for more information on rounding rules and a detailed explanation of the round-to-even rule.
Read more about this topic: Significance Arithmetic
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