Converting Decimals To Fractions easy Math test
Teaching kids decimal to fraction conversion
Converting decimals to fractions can be a little tricky, but once you understand the process, it’s not so difficult! A decimal is a way of writing a number that is not a whole number, like 2.5, 0.75, or 8.333. A fraction is a way of writing a number that represents a part of a whole, like 1/2, 3/4, or 5/6. To convert a decimal to a fraction, we will use the following steps:
- Write the decimal as a fraction with a denominator of 1. For example, 0.75 would be written as 0.75/1.
- Multiply both the numerator and denominator of the fraction by a power of 10 to make the denominator a whole number. In the example above, we would multiply both the numerator and denominator by 100 to get 75/100.
- Simplify the fraction by dividing the numerator and denominator by their greatest common factor. In the example above, 75 and 100 share a common factor of 25, so we can divide both the numerator and denominator by 25 to get 3/4.
Let’s try an example: Convert 0.333 to fraction:
- Write the decimal as a fraction: 0.333/1
- Multiply both the numerator and denominator of the fraction by a power of 10 to make the denominator a whole number: 0.333*3=0.999/3
- Simplify the fraction: The numerator and denominator share a common factor of 3, so we can divide both the numerator and denominator by 3 to get 1/3
For kids it may be helpful to practice it with more examples as well as a visual demonstration of how we can convert decimals to fractions, such as with the use of a number line where the decimal is located between two other numbers and its position on the number line represents its fraction value.
It’s important to note that not every decimal is able to convert to a simplified fraction. Some decimal values will have repeating patterns and may yield fractions with big denominators, which is called repeating decimal.