Decimals and Fractions

Rational numbers can be written as fractions or decimals. It is possible to write rational numbers in either form. Strategies for writing decimals as fraction and fractions as decimals will be presented.

Changing Decimals to Fractions

Rational numbers that are terminating decimals (stop) can easily be written as fractions. Any digits to the left of the decimal place are whole numbers but digits to the right of the decimal place can be written as fractions with denominators of ten, one hundred, one thousand etc.

Example

$16.25$ can be written as \begin{align*} 16 + \frac{2}{10}+\frac{5}{100}&=16+\frac{25}{100}\\[1ex] &=16\frac14. \end{align*}

Write the following decimals as fractions in simplest form in the format a/b (for mixed numerals write the integer part in the first box and fraction in the second box).

$0.7$
$0.6$
$-0.25$
$1.05$
$-0.08$