How to Calculate the Ratio of a Decimal
Ratios, decimals and percentages confuse many people. Remember that they are simply different ways of expressing the relationships of numbers to each other. If you are given a decimal, you can sometimes express its meaning more clearly by turning it into a ratio. For instance, if someone told you that the relationship of new car engines that work perfectly for a year to car engines that break down within the first year is 0.05, that decimal might not mean much to you. It means more if someone tells you that for every five new car engines that break down in the first year, 95 work perfectly. That is a ratio. Converting a decimal to a ratio is not a difficult task.
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Instructions
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Determine the size of the smallest increment of the decimal you are looking at. Is it in tenths, hundredths, thousandths, millionths? Make this determination by counting the number of digits to the right of the decimal point and adding that number of zeros to the right of a 1. When counting the digits to the right of the decimal point, omit any zeros that come last.
For example, consider that 0.00300 of all houses in America have been foreclosed upon. 0.00300 has three important digits to the right of the decimal. Do not count the last two zeros because they do not contribute to the meaning of the number because 0.00300 = 0.003. Add three zeros to the right of a 1 like so:
Answer 1 = 1,000
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Subtract the absolute value of the important digits to the right of the decimal point (X) from Answer 1.
Forexample, the important digits to the right of the decimal were 003, so X = 3.
Answer 2 = 1,000 - 3 = 997
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Write the ratio by putting X before Answer 2 in ratio form.
For example, 3:997 or 3 to 997. In terms of the housing example, you would write that for every three foreclosed-upon houses, 997 were not foreclosed upon.
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References
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