How do you express a decimal as a fraction?

Answer 1

Decimals represent tenths, hundreds, thousandths, and smaller fractions. You hear it when you say that 0.6 is "six tenths" (6/10).

Write out your decimal value as the numerator. Count the number of places after the decimal point, and make the value of 10 that has the same number of zeroes your denominator.

Examples:

For 0.6 the numerator is 6

There is one place after the decimal, so with one zero, the denominator is 10.

The fraction becomes 6/10, reducible to 3/5

For 0.06, the 6 is again the numerator, but we have two places after the decimal, so the denominator has to have two zeroes, the value being 100.

The fraction is 6/100, reducible to 3/50 or three fiftieths.

For 0.10256, the numerator is 10256

The denominator will have 5 zeroes.

The fraction becomes 10256/100000 which reduces (divide top and bottom by 16) to 641/6250 - make the division to check your answer.

For mixed numbers, such as 2.25, leave the 2 alone and just convert the decimal.

2.25 = 2 and 25/100 = 2 1/4

1.5 = 1 1/2 or 3/2