Chapter 5
Deciphering Decimals
IN THIS CHAPTER
Applying decimals to the Big Four operations
Looking at decimal and fraction conversions
Making sense of repeating decimals
Decimals look and feel more like whole numbers than fractions do, so when 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. The numerals 0 through 9 work just like they usually do. As long as you get the decimal point in the right place, you’re home free.
In this chapter, I show you all about working with decimals. I also show you how to convert fractions to decimals and decimals to fractions. Finally, I give you a peek into the strange world of repeating decimals.
Performing the Big Four Operations with Decimals
Everything you already know about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers carries over when you work with decimals. In fact, in each case, there’s really only one key difference: how to handle that pesky little decimal point. In this
Get Pre-Algebra Essentials For Dummies now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
