How would you write 0.3480 in words. Would it be thirty-four and eight thousandth cents?

Answer 1

Not quite. Because the last number after the decimal point is a zero, we can forget that zero exists as it holds no information. Because numbers after the decimal are moving in the opposite direction to the numbers before the decimal, a zero to the right means nothing, the same as if the first number on the left before the decimal was a zero (example 0100 is 100, the 0 at the beginning means nothing to us).

So your number is essentially 0.348. We have 3 tenths, 4 hundredths, and 8 thousandths. So we are going to express this number as thousandths because that is the placing of the last number. Then just read the number after the decimal in the same way you would read a number before the decimal, in this case 348 or three hundred and forty-eight.

So your answer is three hundred and forty-eight thousandths.

If you were looking for an answer in cents, as in the original number is actually $0.3480, this is different. The tenths and hundredths place after the decimal are whole cents, so the number becomes 34.8 cents (The 34 has become whole numbers and the 8 has moved into the tenths position). This would be worded as thirty-four and eight tenths cents (or the lazy version, thirty-four point eight cents).