What is 29.872 rounded to the nearest tenth?

• A. 29.9
• B. 29.8
• C. 29.87
• D. 30.0

Answer: (A)

Rounding to the nearest tenth means keeping one decimal place. Look at the hundredths digit to decide whether to bump the tenths. For 29.872, the tenths digit is 8 and the hundredths digit is 7. Since the hundredths digit is 5 or more, you increase the tenths digit by 1: 8 becomes 9. Dropping the digits beyond the tenths gives 29.9. The other options don’t fit because 29.8 would require a hundredths digit less than 5, 29.87 keeps two decimals, and 30.0 would require rounding up past 29.95.