Fractions to Decimals

In this lesson, we will look at converting fractions (with denominators that are multiples of 10) into decimals.

In another lesson, we will look at converting fractions with denominators (that are not multiples of 10) into decimals.

Let us look at fractions with denominator 10 and write them as decimals.

Example:

and so on.

A similar pattern can be seen when we write fractions with denominator which is a multiple of 10 as decimals.

Example :

and so on

and so on

Let us examine the example = 0.01 more closely.

The numerator 1 in decimal format is 1.0 with 0 added to show there is a decimal point “.” between 1 and 0. We are only interested in “1.” here.

The denominator 100 has 2 zeros. When dividing 1 by 100, we move the decimal point in “1.” to the left by 2 places over 1 and add 0 where necessary to get to 0.01.

Let us summarize the above in the following steps:

Step 1 : Write the numerator and bear in mind a decimal point on the right of the numerator.

Step 2 : Count the number of zeros in the denominator and move the decimal point to the left by the same number of zeros over the digits in the numerator.

Example:

Convert to a decimal.

Solution:

Step 1: Write 8 as 8.

Step 2 : Move decimal point by 1 place to the left over 8 to get 0.8.

= 0.8

Using the same steps, we get

= 0.09 and = 3.12

For mixed fractions, convert the fractional part to a decimal number and then add the whole number and the decimal number.

Example:

Change 3 to a decimal.

Solution:

Step 1 : = 0.72

Step 2 : 3 + 0.72 = 3.72

So,

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