The process of approximating a quantity, be it for convenience or, as in the case of numerical computations, of necessity. If rounding is performed on each of a series of numbers in a long computation, roundoff error can become important, especially if division by a small number ever occurs.

Mulliss, C. "Significant Figures and Rounding Rules." http://www.angelfire.com/oh/cmulliss/.

Wilkinson, J. H. Rounding Errors in Algebraic Processes. New York: Dover, 1994.

CITE THIS AS:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Rounding." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Rounding.html