Decimal’s are all around us!

We have been using decimal’s all of our lives and don’t even realize it. An average person can use decimals in these five ways in their daily life.

1.      Money

2.      Weight

3.      Landscaping

4.      Measurements

5.      Medicine Dose

While we use these 5 things on a daily basis we never really think about the decimal. It is simply common knowledge that the decimal is there. The only time we really think about the decimal is when we are adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals. 

Let’s look at what a decimal is and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide decimals. 

Decimal A decimal is a number that is written with a decimal point in it.  For example: 6.2, 15.65 and 0.023 are decimals. The value of the digits is based on the number ten.

Adding Decimal Adding decimals is very much like adding whole numbers. One important thing to remember when adding decimals is to line up all the decimal points in a column!  If the numbers you are adding do not have the same number of digits to the right of the decimal point, you still have to line up the decimal points before adding.

Subtracting Decimal Subtracting decimals is very much like subtracting whole numbers. One important thing to remember when subtracting decimals is to line up all the decimal points in a column! If the numbers you are subtracting do not have the same number of digits to the right of the decimal point, you still have to line up the decimal points before subtracting.

  

Multiplying Decimals Multiplying decimals is very much like multiplying whole numbers - the major difference is that after you have finished multiplying all the terms while ignoring the decimal points, you have to add up how many decimal places there are in the factors, and put that many decimal places in the answer.

Dividing Decimals Dividing decimals is very much like dividing whole numbers - the major difference is that before you start dividing, you have to multiply the divisor by a power of 10 in order to make it a whole number. Multiply the dividend by the same power of ten then put a decimal point in the answer directly above the new decimal point in the dividend.  The rest of the division problem is just like dividing integers.