{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/round-for-reporting-not-by-accident-during-calculation",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0253",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Round for reporting, not by accident during calculation",
  "summary": "Rounding errors can accumulate while each individual cell looks harmless.",
  "kind": "heuristic",
  "body": "Keep sufficient precision through the calculation and round deliberately at the reporting stage. Show no more precision than the inputs and decision justify. Distinguish a display choice from a change to stored values, especially when a total is assembled from many components.",
  "limits": [
    "Prescribed billing, tax or regulatory rounding rules take precedence over this general computational habit."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-numerical-reasoning"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-5198362E64A50C0D"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "Rounding intermediate measurements can change a final calculation, while extra displayed digits do not create extra measurement information.",
      "source_id": "RS-5198362E64A50C0D",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "Formal accounting and regulatory systems may prescribe specific rounding stages that take precedence.",
      "locator": "Significant figures in calculations"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "Many small values or conversion steps feed a final total."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Prescribed billing, tax or regulatory rounding rules take precedence over this general computational habit."
  ],
  "example": "Three exact values of one third sum to one; three prematurely rounded values of 0.33 sum to 0.99.",
  "check": "The rounding method is intentional, reproducible and appropriate to the context.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-5198362E64A50C0D",
      "title": "Chemistry 2e, 1.5: Measurement Uncertainty, Accuracy, and Precision",
      "url": "https://openstax.org/books/chemistry-2e/pages/1-5-measurement-uncertainty-accuracy-and-precision"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0253",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0254",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/separate-repeatable-measurements-from-correct-measurements"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-D976097B2A42D9AC",
      "title": "Make the numbers answer the right question",
      "url": "/collections/make-the-numbers-answer-the-right-question"
    }
  ]
}