How to Understand Decimal Place Value
Decimal place value is an important math concept to understand. Money is based on decimal place and all sorts of measurements, including distance, time, and age, have decimal components. In elementary school, decimal place is taught in the middle grades, but children as young as five or six can be taught how to understand decimal place value. Whether you're teaching a lesson on money, struggling to understand decimal place value yourself, tutoring a non-traditional adult student for a math course, or just calculating the tip on a check in a restaurant, learn how the decimal place concept works and expand your math skills.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Write the number 1234.5678.
-
2
Identify "1" as the thousands place--this 1 represents one thousand.
-
-
3
Identify "2" as the hundreds place--this means there are 2 hundreds or 200 represented by the 2.
-
4
Identify "3" as the tens place. The 3 stands for 30.
-
5
Identifying the "4" as the ones place. Now you have 1,234--one thousands, two hundreds, three tens, and four ones.
-
6
Look at the 5. The 5 is on the right side of the decimal point. Any number to the left of the decimal point is more than 1, any number to the right is less than 1. The "5" represents .5, or 5/10.
-
7
Identify the "6"--this is 6 one hundredths.
-
8
Identify the "7"--this is 7 one thousandths. Ten one thousandths equals 1 one hundredth.
-
9
Identify the "8"--this is 8 ten thousandths.
-
10
Look at the entire number: 1,234.5678. This is 1 thousand, 2 hundreds, 3 tens, 4 ones, 5 tenths, 6 hundredths, 7 thousandths, and 8 ten thousandths.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Write everything down if you become confused. Seeing the numbers and decimal place on paper can make a big difference in solving a problem.
