Test Questions "Best Practices" for solutions

Can someone give some input or their opinion on this:

1. Say there is a question that asks "the diameter of the pipe, in inches, is most nearly..." and the answer is 24.1, but the answer choices are A - 24 or B - 30, what would be the correct answer?

vs

2. the same question that asks "The diameter of the pipe, in inches, that needs to carry the design flow" , with the same answer and solution choices.

My thought is that the way the first question is worded (most nearly), the answer would be A - 24 (or whichever choice is closest), and the answer to the second question based on the wording would be B - 30 because 24 inches is not meeting design so you have to size up.

Same goes for a transpo question like the following:

If there is a question that asks: "the minimum length of transition curve, is most nearly" for example...
and the answer is 569 ft, but the answer choices are A) 550, or B) 700

What would be the correct answer.

Thanks for the help...

You are correct in your pipe flow scenario

As for minimum curve length (you may see this in a clearance type problem), you wouldn't round down because you would be below the minimum.

Example .... problem states you need a minimum 2 ft clearance over a pipe ... the math works out to a curve length of 569, you wouldn't pick 550 because this would lower the curve and reduce cover over the pipe.

Now if you were going under something, and say you need 17 foot clearance to get under an overpass, you would go with 550, because 700 would raise the road and reduce clearance.

It all depends on the situation .....

Transpo Depth problems that have some minimum requirement you would never round to below that number.