What is the process of changing a decimal to a fraction?

Answer 1

Move the decimal point to the right to the very end of the number. Count the number of places that you had to move it to get it there. Then remove the decimal point. Put the number (without the decimal point) above the slash mark (/). Put below the slash mark, or to the right of the slash mark, a 1 followed by zeros. The number of zeros should be equal to the number of places that you moved the decimal point to get it all the way to the right. Then simplify the fraction by dividing top and bottom by whatever common factors there are.

Example:

5434.56767

1. Move the decimal point to the right as many places as possible to get it all the way to the right. Count how many places you moved it, then remove the decimal point.

543456767

The decimal point had to be moved 5 places to get it all the way to the right, then be removed.

2. Put the number above (or to the left) of the slash mark, then add 1 plus as many zeros as the decimal point was moved below or to the right of the slash mark.

543456767/100000

3. Convert to simplest form by dividing the top and bottom by common factors.

Start by trying 2, but the top number is odd; so it can't be divided by 2. Try 3, but the bottom number isn't divisible by 3, so try 5, but the top number isn't divisible by 5. Try factoring out the bottom number, then see if the top number is divisible by any of those numbers. The only factors of 100000 are 2 and 5, and the top number isn't divisible by 2 or 5, so it is already in simplest form. It is what is called an improper fraction, which means that the top number is larger than the bottom number. You could convert it to a mixed number, but you weren't asked to get a mixed number, just a fraction; so leave it as is.