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I've been helping my son prepare for math exams, and we've been reviewing lower and upper bounds for numbers, given the number of decimals places and/or significant figures.

However in his study materials he's been given the following question to ponder, and I'm not sure how to address it when numbers are operated on such as division in this case.

Suppose a = 4.72 to 3 significant figures and b = 158 to 3 significant figures. How would one compute the upper bound of a/b?

(I’m guessing .002985, but I’m many years out of school!!)

Curious Jorge - user9788072
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    Take the maximum possible value of the dividend, and divide it by the minimum possible value of the divisor, given that the dividend and divisor are both positive. The dividend is less than $4.725$ and the divisor is greater than or equal to $157.5$. – user2661923 Feb 18 '22 at 04:30
  • The previous comment depends on your use of the term significant digits. That is, are the numbers rounded, or truncated? For example, does the dividend lie in the range $4.715$ through $4.725$ or does it lie in the range $4.72$ through $4.73$? – user2661923 Feb 18 '22 at 04:35

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