Rounding to significant figures

The first significant figure is the first digit that is not zero, reading from the left. The next digit is the second, and so on.

• Step 1: count along to the last significant figure you want to keep
• Step 2: look at the next digit. If it is 5 or more, the digit you are keeping goes up by one
• Step 3: turn every later digit before the decimal point into a zero

Worked example: 48,762 to 2 significant figures. The first two are 4 and 8. The next digit is 7, so the 8 goes up to 9. The answer is 49,000. To 1 significant figure it is 50,000.