The reason, I believe, has to do with place value.  The '3' represents 300
rather than 3 by virtue of its position.  Without the low-order digits to
hold the 1's and 10's places, the value of the '3' would be lost.  In other
words, you would need to evaluate the number from right to left to discern
its value.  Although we 'read' the number left to right, by saying "three
hundred forty-five", we know to say "three hundred" because we have scanned
ahead to see how many digits follow it.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Boyd [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 11:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Wildly OT: Simple math question


This is a simple math question from my 9 year olds homework.  Could someone
with a mathematics background explain the reasoning behind the alleged
correct answer for me? Because I just don't get it.

The question:
        What is the last digit in the number 346?

She answered 6 and so did I.  The correct answer is apparently 3.  Why?
I've already written a note to the teacher requesting an explanation, but I
was hoping someone in the group could come up with something better than
"Because the book says so".

Thanks
Boyd.

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