ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Truncation

Truncation is like getting only part of something. Imagine you have a really long piece of paper with a picture on it, but you can only see part of the picture because someone cut off the rest of the paper. That's what truncation means.

In math, truncation means taking a number and getting rid of some of the digits after the decimal point. For example, if you have the number 3.14159 and you truncate it to two decimal places, you get 3.14. You only keep the part of the number you want and cut off the rest.

Truncation is different from rounding, which is when you look at the next digit after the one you want to keep and if it's 5 or greater, you round up to the next number. Truncation just cuts off the extra digits, so you always end up with a smaller number than you started with.

Truncation is useful in many areas of math, like when you need to simplify a number or when you're working with percentages or fractions. It's also important to understand truncation when you're using calculators or computer programs that may automatically truncate numbers for you.