How to Order Decimals From Least to Greatest

If you have ever compared prices of toys, you have ordered decimals.

Decimals may look scary the first time you see them, but you can conquer them. If you have ever compared prices of toys, found a station on the radio or chosen the latest version of a computer game, you have ordered decimals, even if you didn't know that's what you were doing.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Start by ordering only the tenth's place--the digit immediately to the right of the decimal point. Group the 0s, then the 1s, 2s, and so on, until you reach the 9s.

2. Order numbers with the same digit in the tenths place based on the hundredths place--the next digit. Some numbers don't have a hundredths place; pretend those numbers have a 0 in the hundredths place.

3. Order numbers with the same digits in the tenths and hundredths places based on the thousandths place--the third digit after the decimal point. Pretend that any numbers with no thousandths place have a 0 there.

4. Continue ordering based on the ten-thousandths, hundred-thousandths and millionths places, and so on until you have ordered the entire list.

5. Add less-than, greater-than and equal-to signs to indicate order; the arrow/carrot points to the smaller number. For example: 0.094 = 0.0940 < 0.1 < 0.285 < 0.46 < 0.4814 < 0.4822 < 0.6538 < 0.7 < 0.71

Tips & Warnings

• When writing out your list of numbers, line up your places so you can draw a straight line through the tenths place of all your numbers, the hundredths place and so on.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• AAA Math: Decimals
• Cool Math: Decimal Lessons
• University of South Carolilna: Tutorial on the Use of Significant Figures
• Math Is Fun: Equal, Greater or Less Than