Relationship between Fractions and Decimals

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Fractions to Decimals: Learn

Do the following steps to convert a fraction to a decimal:

Divide the numerator by the denominator
Round to the desired precision

For example: Convert 4/9 to a decimal, rounding to the nearest hundredth.

Divide 4 ÷ 9 = 0.44444....
Round to 0.44

This procedure works because of the relationship between fractions and division. You could think of fractions as a way to show an incomplete division, or a division that may have a remainder.

This procedure is frequently done with a calculator, but if you are doing long division, you may need additional placeholder zeros at the end of your dividend to generate additional decimal places for the result above. For example, when converting 5/6 to a decimal:

		0	.	8	3	3
6		5	.	0	0	0
	-	4		8
				2	0
			-	1	8
					2	0
				-	1	8
						2

We could keep going, with more and more zeros after the 5.000, but we will round this one to the nearest hundredth, so we can stop at 3 decimal places, rounding our final answer to 0.83.

Fractions to Decimals: Practice

What decimal Does the Fraction Represent?

00:00

Round your answer to the nearest hundredth.

Convert X to a decimal:

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