Decimals
A decimal is a fraction that’s been churned
through your calculator. If you take any fraction and divide the
numerator by the denominator, what comes out is a decimal equivalent
to the starting fraction:
The decimal value 0.625 is the same as
.
It’s another way of writing a part to a whole. On the SAT, flipping
between fractions and decimals is a handy skill. You’ve seen how
to change a fraction to a decimal. To change a decimal to a fraction,
follow the three steps below.
-
Remove the decimal point and make the decimal number
the numerator.
If we start with 0.862, we place the 862 in the numerator:
-
Let the denominator be the number 1, followed by as
many zeroes as there are decimal places after the decimal point.
There are three decimal places after the zero in 0.862,
so we’ll want to put three zeroes after the 1:
Find a common factor and reduce the number:
