Converting Decimals to Fractions: Part A
If a decimal number terminates (in other words, the digits don't go on forever), express the decimal number as a common fraction with a power of ten as the denominator. Then reduce the fraction to lowest terms .
Since we need to put our number over a power of ten, we need to know what the various places after the decimal point mean.
Example:
Express as a fraction in lowest terms.
Since there are digits in , the very last digit is the th place.
So, is read thousandths.
It is written . It is now in fraction form but not reduced to lowest terms.
and have a common factor of , so we have to divide both the numerator and the denominator by to reduce the fraction.
. Now the fraction is in lowest terms.
