Rounding Prices and Whole Boxes
Your task: In C2:C4, round each price to cents; in D7 and D8, work out whole boxes needed and filled.
Full instructions, scenario and goal
Scenario
A warehouse imports goods whose calculated unit prices have too many decimals. Finance wants the prices rounded to the cent, and the shipping team needs whole boxes: how many to order so everything fits, and how many full boxes a smaller lot can fill.
Your task
- In C2:C4, round each unit price to two decimal places.
- In D7, work out how many boxes are needed to ship all the units in row 7. A box that is only partly filled still counts as a box.
- In D8, work out how many boxes can be filled completely with the units in row 8.
- Use the cells in your formulas, then select Check Answer.
You are done when
- The prices are truly rounded to cents, not just displayed that way.
- D7 never leaves units without a box.
- D8 counts only completely filled boxes.
What you will practise
Round a value for display and for real, and pick ROUND, ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN depending on what the number means.
The idea in 30 seconds
ROUND takes a number and the number of decimal places to keep, and rounds to the nearest value: 2 keeps cents, 0 gives a whole number, and -2 would round to hundreds. ROUNDUP always moves away from zero and ROUNDDOWN always moves toward zero, whatever the next digit is. All three really change the value, unlike number formatting, which only changes how the number looks on screen.
Spreadsheet
Loading spreadsheet…
Keyboard shortcuts
- Arrow keys
- Move between cells
- Shift + Arrow keys, or drag with the mouse
- Select a range
- Ctrl + Arrow keys
- Jump to the edge of a block of data
- Type, or F2, or double-click
- Edit a cell (F2 switches arrow keys between moving and editing)
- Click or arrow keys inside a formula
- Insert a cell reference after =, +, (, comma and similar
- F4
- Cycle a reference through A1, $A$1, A$1, $A1
- Enter / Tab while editing
- Confirm and move down / right (Shift reverses)
- Esc
- Cancel the edit
- Ctrl + C / X / V
- Copy, cut and paste (formulas adjust like in Excel)
- Delete
- Clear the selected cells
- Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y
- Undo and redo
- Ctrl + Enter
- Check your answer
- Tab when not editing
- Leave the spreadsheet
Type your answer in cell C2. Click a cell and type. Enter confirms, Esc cancels, Ctrl+Enter checks your answer.Tap a highlighted cell to type in it, then tap the green tick to confirm. Scroll the sheet sideways if it is wider than your screen.
New here? How an exercise works
- Read the task. Highlighted cells are yours to fill in; the rest are locked.
- Select (or tap) a highlighted cell and type a formula. It starts with =, like =A1+B1.
- Press Check answer. Stuck? Reveal hints one at a time.
The full explanation: the idea behind this exercise
ROUND takes a number and the number of decimal places to keep, and rounds to the nearest value: 2 keeps cents, 0 gives a whole number, and -2 would round to hundreds. ROUNDUP always moves away from zero and ROUNDDOWN always moves toward zero, whatever the next digit is. All three really change the value, unlike number formatting, which only changes how the number looks on screen.
Which one you choose depends on the story behind the number. Prices are rounded to the nearest cent, so ROUND is right. If every started box must be shipped, a partial box still needs a whole box, so you round up. If you only count boxes that can be completely filled, you round down. Choosing the wrong one gives an answer that looks fine and is quietly off by one.
Skills you will practise
- ROUND
- ROUNDUP
- ROUNDDOWN
- Rounding
Complete first: Sale Price After a Percentage Discount
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using ROUND for boxes
- ROUND goes to the nearest whole number, so 19.17 becomes 19 and the last units are left without a box.
- Relying on cell formatting
- Showing two decimals does not change the stored value. Use ROUND when the rounded number must be used in later calculations.