Fractions and decimals
Decimal numbers are another way to represent numbers that are less than 1. Decimals are written to the right of the ones place and separated by a period called the decimal point. The first digit to the right of the decimal point represents tenths (e.g., 0.3 is three tenths), the second represents hundredths (e.g., 0.03 is three hundredths), the third represents thousandths (e.g., 0.003 is three thousandths), and so on.
Convert fractions to decimals
1. Find a number you can multiply by the denominator (bottom of the fraction) to make it 10, or 100, or 1000, etc.
$$1/2={1×5}/{2×5}=5/bo10$$
$$1/4={1×25}/{4×25}=25/bo100$$
2. A fraction in this form can be converted to a decimal - just put the decimal point in the correct position (one space from the right hand side for every zero in the bottom number):
E.g. $5/10=0.5;$ ; $25/100=0.25$
For some numbers there is no way to multiply them to become tens, hundreds or thousands. For these numbers you can calculate an approximate decimal (finding a denominator close to 10, 100 or 1000):
$$1/3={1×333}/{3×333}=$$
$$=333/bo999≈333/bo1000=0.333$$
This table shows the most common fractions and their conversions to decimal numbers.
| Fraction | Decimal |
| $1/10$ | 0.1 |
| $2/10$ | 0.2 |
| $1/2$ | 0.5 |
| $1/3$ | 0.3 |
| $2/3$ | 0.6 |
| $1/4$ | 0.25 |
| $3/4$ | 0.75 |
| $1/5$ | 0.2 |
| $2/5$ | 0.4 |
| $1/6$ | 0.16 |
| $1/8$ | 0.125 |
