decimals（UnderstandingDecimalsAnIn-DepthLook）
UnderstandingDecimals:AnIn-DepthLook
Whenitcomestomathematicalconcepts,decimalsareoftenseenasoneofthetrickiesttowrapyourheadaround.Butfearnot,aswediveintothistopic,you'llcometoseethatdecimalsarenotsodauntingafterall.Inthisarticle,wewilltakeacloserlookatdecimalsandexploretheirmanyuses.
WhatareDecimals?
Decimalsareawaytorepresentpartsofwholenumbersthatfallbetweentwointegers.Inotherwords,theyareawayofexpressingnumbersthatarenotwholenumbers.Theyarewrittenasanumberwithadecimalpoint,whichseparatesthewholenumberfromthedecimalpart.
Thedecimalpointrepresentsaspecificplacevalue,alsoknownasthetenthsplace.Thedigitstotheleftofthedecimalpointrepresentwholenumbers,whilethedigitstotherightofthedecimalpointrepresentfractionsofawhole.
UsesofDecimals
Nowthatweknowwhatdecimalsare,let'sexploretheirmanyuses.
Oneofthemostcommonusesofdecimalsisinmoney.Dollarsandcentsareoftenrepresentedwithdecimalpoints.Forexample,$3.50representsthreedollarsandfiftycents.
Anotherimportantuseofdecimalsisinmeasurements,suchaslength,weight,andvolume.Wheneveryoumeasuresomethingthatisnotawholenumber,youwilllikelyusedecimals.
Decimalsarealsousedinscientificnotation.Inscientificnotation,anumberiswrittenintheformofadecimalnumbermultipliedbyapowerof10.Thismakesiteasiertoworkwithverylargeorverysmallnumbers.
AddingandSubtractingDecimals
Nowthatweunderstandwhatdecimalsareandtheirmanyuses,let'stakeacloserlookathowtoaddandsubtractdecimals.
Thekeytoaddingandsubtractingdecimalsistoalignthedecimalpoints.Justlikewhenaddingorsubtractingwholenumbers,youneedtomakesurethatthedigitsarealignedintheircorrectplacevalue.
Onceyou'vealignedthedecimalpoints,youcanaddorsubtractthenumbersjustlikeyouwouldwithwholenumbers.Remembertocarryoveranydigitsthatneedtobecarried,andpayattentiontothedecimalpointtomakesureitendsupinthecorrectposition.
Inconclusion,decimalsareanimportantmathematicalconceptthatareusedinmanydifferentways.Whiletheymayseemtrickyatfirst,withalittlebitofpractice,you'llbeaproatadding,subtracting,andworkingwithdecimalsinnotime!
