9.3 Changing a fraction to a decimal
Again there are two ways to do this, both based on the two methods just shown for changing a fraction to a percentage.
Method 1
Example: Change the fraction into a percentage and divide by 100
× = which cancels to = 25%
Now convert to a decimal by dividing by 100:
25 ÷ 100 = 0.25
Method 2
Activity 23: Changing a fraction to a decimal
Express these fractions as decimals:
Answer
0.4
0.125
0.3
Fractions and percentages deal with splitting numbers into a given number of equal portions, or parts. When dealing with the next topic, ratio, you will still be splitting quantities into a given number of parts, but when sharing in a ratio, you do not share evenly. This might sound a little complicated but you’ll have been doing it since you were a child.
Summary
In this section you have:
learned about the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages and are now able to convert between the three.