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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Seattlite86, post: 3550023, member: 59737&quot;]Now, there was a claim made that those who voice concern about rounding benefiting the seller &quot;don&#039;t understand mathematics&quot;, and to argue against rounding in any way is in itself arguing against mathematics.&nbsp; As such, I’d like to break down the rounding in simple numbers to help explain a reasonable, mathematics-based concern for administering the rounding system.&nbsp; My argument: would be very easy to manipulate the system by changing all store item prices to certain numbers.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the rounding data by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 intervals.&nbsp; 5 is obviously not used, as no rounding is needed.</p><p><br /></p><p>1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10</p><p><br /></p><p>Results: 4/10 round up, 4/10 round down, 2/10 stay even.&nbsp; Favors buyer on the first 3 purchases, but evens out on the 4th purchase. Buyer is NEVER in the negative when increments of 1 are used.</p><p><br /></p><p>2,4,6,8,10</p><p><br /></p><p>Results: 2/5 round up, 2/5 round down, 1/5 stay even. Favors buyer on up to 3 item purchases, but evens out on the 4th purchase. Buyer is NEVER in the negative when increments of two are used.</p><p><br /></p><p>3,6,9,12,15</p><p><br /></p><p>Results: 2/5 round up, 2/5 round down, 1/5 stay even. Favors buyer on up to three item purchases, but evens out on the 4th purchase. Buyer is NEVER in the negative when increments of 3 are used.</p><p><br /></p><p>4,8,12,16,20</p><p><br /></p><p>Results: 2/5 round up, 2/5 round down, 1/5 stay even. Favors seller on single item purchases up to 3 item purchases, but evens out after the 4th purchase. Seller is NEVER in the negative when increments of 4 are used.</p><p><br /></p><p>6,12,18,24,30</p><p><br /></p><p>Results: 2/5 round up, 2/5 round down, 1/5 stay even. Favors buyer on up to 3 purchases, but evens out on the 4th purchase. Buyer is NEVER in the negative when increments of 6 are used.</p><p><br /></p><p>7,14,21,28,35,42,49,56,63,70</p><p><br /></p><p>Results: 4/10 round up, 4/10 round down, 2/10 stay even. Favors buyer on up to 3 purchases but evens out on the 4th purchase. Buyer is NEVER in the negative when increments of 7 are used. As long as the buyer purchases 8 items or less, the buyer comes out on top.</p><p><br /></p><p>8,16,24,32,40</p><p><br /></p><p>Results: 2/5 round up, 2/5 round down, 1/5 stay even. Favors seller on up to 3 purchases, but evens out on the 4th purchase. Seller is NEVER in the negative when increments of 8 are used.</p><p><br /></p><p>9,18,27,36,45,54,63,72,81,90</p><p><br /></p><p>Results: 4/10 round up, 4/10 round down, 2/10 stay even. Favors seller on up to 3 purchases, but evens out on the 4th purchase. Seller is NEVER in the negative when increments of 9 are used. Also, any time a buyer purchases 8 items or less, the seller makes a little money.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Also, when credit cards are used, no rounding is performed, and the seller receives the money each time and there is no benefit to the buyer.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>What does this teach us class? Buyers benefit from rounding any time the items end in a 1, 2, 3, 6 or 7. If a seller wanted to take advantage of the system, all they would have to do is price all items at ending in 4, 8, or 9 cents.&nbsp; We see this very same thing at the gas station, where gas is 3.2199 and it gets rounded up in favor of the seller every time.&nbsp; Gas stations already use rounding.&nbsp; Assuming a gas station would make only 1 cent a day rounding, at approximately 168,000 gas stations in the US (<a href="https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/quizzes/answerQuiz16.shtml" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/quizzes/answerQuiz16.shtml" rel="nofollow">https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/quizzes/answerQuiz16.shtml</a>) that means that gas stations earn approximately $1,680 extra dollars per day from consumers by rounding up, or $611,520 per year.&nbsp; Sure, it&#039;s only a fraction of a cent from each consumer, but they add up.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[USER=112]@GDJMSP[/USER] I&#039;m still waiting on your scientific data to support your outlandish claim, but in the meantime, perhaps you can try to show me where I&#039;ve erred in my calculations and the conclusion I drew.&nbsp; If you&#039;re unable to do that, then perhaps you can at least admit that there are people skeptical of the rounding system and human greed who do understand mathematics.&nbsp; I dare even ask you to admit that the rounding system could be manipulated.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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