February 2014
Beginner
384 pages
6h 58m
English
Content preview from Basic Math and Pre-Algebra For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 11
Dallying with Decimals
In This Chapter
Understanding the decimal basics
Applying decimals to the Big Four operations
Looking at decimal and fraction conversions
Making sense of repeating decimals
Because early humans used their fingers for counting, the number system is based on the number 10. So numbers come in ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on. A decimal — with its handy decimal point — allows people to work with numbers smaller than 1: tenths, hundredths, thousandths, and the like.
Here's some lovely news: Decimals are much easier to work with than fractions (which I discuss in Chapters 9 and 10). Decimals look and feel more like whole numbers than fractions do, so when you're working with decimals, you don't have to worry about reducing and increasing terms, improper fractions, mixed numbers, and a lot of other stuff.
Performing the Big Four operations — addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division — on decimals is very close to performing them on whole numbers (which I cover in Part II of the book). The numerals 0 through 9 work just like they usually ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.