The picture above tells a thousand stories! Well, actually it might tell a tenth of a story or a hundredth of a story or a thousandth of a story depending on where the decimal point is and what digits follow the decimal point!
Every time that TV reporters read decimals, especially weather forecasters, because they always say things like the barometric pressure is "29 POINT 92 inches", and these guys are scientists? I hate to think that scientists are not concerned with things like place value. 29.92 should be read as twenty-nine AND ninety-two hundredths. Maybe students do understand that 29 point 92 is almost 30, but maybe they don't. Anyway, reading decimal values using correct place value is a good place to start.
SO,
.7 is seven tenths.
.70 is seventy hundreds
.700 is seven hundred thousandths
Simple, say the number like a whole number, and then say the SMALLEST place value. (and thousandths are waaaayyyyy smaller than tenths-don't believe me? ---try cutting your pizza into 1,000 equal pieces versus ten equal pieces:-} )
However, we are not limited to looking at decimal numbers and only reading them as decimals. Huh? Well, .7, .70, .700 are all also 70%, and they can all be written as fractions as well.So, which way should we read a decimal?
In short, in whatever way makes the most sense for the problem. The work above shows three ways to read each decimal, percent or fraction. If I was trying to enter 1/8 on a cheap calculator, I probably would have to use .125. If I wanted to describe the same quantity to a person, I would probably say 12 1/2%, as I have learned that most folks have a pretty good "percent schema".
If I was trying to add 1/8 to a simple fraction like 1/4, I'd leave both as fractions (1/8 + 2/8 = 3/8 woohooo).So, for a fifth grader what is important to know?.5 or .50 or .500...is the decimal way to say 1/2So, .675 = 67 1/2 hundredths or 67 1/2 % or 67.5 %.33333333 is the decimal way to say 1/3.66666666 is the decimal way to say 2/31 whole = 100% 2 wholes = 200% .....So, 3 1/2 = 350% or 3.5
Be flexible, and remember that the word POINT is dead and buried!
Thank you Mr. Ruark!! Once again you amaze us!!
