Decimals Flashcards, test questions and answers
Discover flashcards, test exam answers, and assignments to help you learn more about Decimals and other subjects. Don’t miss the chance to use them for more effective college education. Use our database of questions and answers on Decimals and get quick solutions for your test.
What is Decimals?
Decimals are a special type of number that can be used to express fractions or parts of a whole number. They are written using digits along with the decimal point, which separates the whole numbers from the fractional part. Decimals are widely used in mathematics and other sciences, as they provide an efficient way to represent fractions and measure values precisely. In decimal notation, each digit place represents an increasing power of ten (from right to left). For example, in the decimal 0.534, ‘5’ is in the tenths place because it multiplies by 10-1; ‘3’ is in the hundredths place because it multiplies by 10-2; and ‘4’ is in the thousandths place because it multiplies by 10-3. Each digit after a decimal point increases its value exponentiallythe further you move towards the right, each digit has ten times more value than its predecessor. Decimals can also be used to represent repeating patterns such as 1/3 (0.333333) or 1/7 (0.142857). These repeating decimals come from fractions that cannot be expressed as a whole number divided by another whole number (an irrational number), so they must be expressed as recurring decimals instead. Decimals are often used when dealing with money such as currency exchange rates or prices for items at stores where exact values need to be represented accurately for transactions. In these cases, decimal numbers help ensure everyone gets exactly what they paid for without needing complicated calculations involving fractions and rounding up or down from certain values involving cents or other smaller denominations of currency units. Finally, decimals can also represent angles on a circle or pie chart through their own unique system known as radians or degrees where each degree can then be split into parts using decimalsallowing us to measure angles more precisely than before when only 360 degrees were available on a circle.