What is 51.54 to the nearest whole number

Recall that when you want to round to a specific place, you look to the number directly proceeding that place. If that number is greater than or equal to five, you round up; otherwise, you round down.

Because you want to round to the nearest whole number, you want to cut it off directly after the decimal point, so we look just beyond that place. The number proceeding is 5, meaning we round up!

The answer is 52.