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Place value with decimals

Place value and decimals are related. We can begin by reviewing the concept of ones, tens, and hundreds places, and then demonstrates how tenths, hundredths, and thousandths places work. By understanding place value, we can interpret the meaning of each digit in a decimal number.

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  • blobby blue style avatar for user Emma
    Why do decimals have an additional ths, for example tenths or hundreths?
    (15 votes)
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    • primosaur seed style avatar for user Ian Pulizzotto
      For place values in whole numbers, there’s a pattern. Each time we go one place to the left, we multiply the place value by 10. Therefore, reversing direction, we see that each time we go one place to the right, we divide the place value by 10.

      This pattern is continued for decimals, even going to the right of the decimal point. The place just before the decimal point is the ones (units).

      One divided by 10 is one-tenth, so the first place after the decimal point is tenths.

      One-tenth divided by 10 is one-hundredth, so the second place after the decimal point is hundredths.

      One-hundredth divided by 10 is one-thousandth, so the third place after the decimal point is thousandths.

      This pattern continues forever. It’s the repeated division of a unit by 10 that creates smaller and smaller fractions ending in “ths” (with larger and larger denominators), as we go farther and farther to the right of the decimal point.

      Have a blessed, wonderful day!
      (20 votes)
  • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Adepeju Olatise
    How far does a decimal go?😕
    (11 votes)
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  • stelly blue style avatar for user Elise Tuz
    How far out does the decimal place go?
    (5 votes)
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    • leaf yellow style avatar for user Ranvir Malhi
      If I understood your question correctly, Your answer would probably be 0.999 (it keeps going) as long as it does not add up to the value of one whole (1) which would mean it is no longer a decimal but a whole number. There are three decimal places we know of which are tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. Here is a number of a example. 3.378, notice that 3 is a whole number and 378 is in the decimals place value? If we were rounding, we would round 3.378 to simply 3 because the decimals are not large enough to round up to 4, so we round down to 3. In conclusion decimals are simply a remainder that did not add up to a whole number and that 0.999 would be your greatest decimal. Also, I forgot you were to round 0.999 you would get 1 and the decimals place value would no longer be there because you got 1 whole
      (9 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user hearts4niyah
    i still don't understand about the thousands and thousandths .
    (4 votes)
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    • duskpin sapling style avatar for user Claire S.
      A thousAND is a number as 1000. It would be multiplied by 1000. Each thousand has 1000 in it. For example, 7 thousands are expressed as 7000, as 7 x 1000 = 7000.
      a thousANDTH is a number as 0.001. It would be multiplied by 0.001. For example, 7 thousandths would be 0.007, because 0.001 x 7 = 0.007.
      Hope this helps, any questions let me know.
      Have a wonderful day! ^-^
      (11 votes)
  • aqualine sapling style avatar for user ~CHLOE Y.~
    Why in decimals, why do we add a 'Th' in the end of a word. EX: Hundred th, ten th thousand th. That's what I don't get
    (4 votes)
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    • hopper cool style avatar for user Philip
      The reasons are:
      #1: you are using the English alphabet or something similar. If you don't like it, try switching to a different language.
      #2: The "-th" is a suffix that indicates order or rank in a series. Since decimals are ordinal numbers (e.g. First, second, third), then every one of them will be given the suffix. Otherwise, it couldn't have been called a decimal in the first place 😉
      (7 votes)
  • stelly blue style avatar for user Elise Tuz
    How far out does the decimal go?
    (51 votes)
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  • male robot hal style avatar for user AJTheFlyer
    Wait so whats the different's of thousands and thousandths??
    (23 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user 1590940
    what does the tens means and ones and what the answer to PIE
    (26 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Livvy
    I still seriously have no idea about the difference between Thousands and thousandths, Tens and tenths, etc.
    (17 votes)
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    • stelly blue style avatar for user Kim Seidel
      Any place value ending in "th" represents a fraction.
      Those without the "th" ending represent whole numbers.
      2 tens = 20
      2 tenths = 2/10 or 0.2
      If you have $20 (2 tens) you have a lot more money than if you have $0.20 (2 tenth = 2 dimes)

      3 thousands = 3000
      3 thousanths = 3/1000 or 0.003

      Hope this helps.
      (35 votes)
  • female robot ada style avatar for user shariana
    does place value with decimals actually have questions that we can answer
    (23 votes)
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Video transcript

- [Instructor] What we're going to do in this video is refresh our understanding of place value but we're going to dig a little bit deeper and think about place value in the context of decimals. So just as a refresher if I have the number 973, this should be review for you. We already know that this rightmost space right over here, this is the ones place and if we move one space to the left of that, this is the tens place. Notice we went from ones to tens, tens are ten times as much as ones. And then we move one space to the left of that, we go to the we multiply by tens again. We get to the hundreds space and so this nine doesn't just represent nine, it represents nine hundred or we could write that as 900. Similarly the seven doesn't just represent seven, it represents seven tens or 70. This three represents three ones, so it actually does represent three. But as I promised we're now going to extend our understanding and what we do is we put a decimal here which you've probably seen before at the right and the reason why we even need a decimal is to really tell us where our ones place is. We say okay if we go right to the left of the decimal that's going to be our one space because once we start introducing decimals we can introduce as many spaces as we want to the right of the decimal. And so let's think about those a little bit. If when we went from hundreds to tens, notice we divided by ten, when we go from tens to ones, notice you divide by ten. So what do you think this place over here is going to be called? Well what happens if you take one divided by ten? Well then you get a tenth so as you might imagine this is the tenths place. And then if you were to go one place to the right of that, what would this place be? Well it'd be tenths divided by ten or 1/10 of a tenth, so this would be a hundredth, hundredths place. And then if you were to go one space to the right we could keep doing this forever, but if we were to go one space to the right of that, what would it be? Well a hundredth divided by ten or 1/10 of a hundredth is a thousandth, thousandth space. And so for example if I were to extend this number instead of if just being 973, if I were to write 973.526, what do these numbers these digits represent? This five doesn't just represent five, it represents five tenths or another way of writing five tenths you could write it like this 0.5 you just have a five in the tenths place. Or you could write it as five tenths. This two I think you get where this is going, this doesn't just represent two, it represents two hundredths I'm just going to make it very explicit in this video, so it's very clear two hundredths. Another way to write that is you just write a two in the hundredths place. So we're going one two spaces to the right of the decimal or you could write it as two over 100, two hundredths. And so for kicks, pause the video what are all the different ways of representing this six? What does this six represent? Well this is six thousandths, six thousandths, thousandths, there you go. I could also write that as zero point, let's see it's the tenths place, hundredths place, and then in the thousandths place I have six or I could write this as six over 1000, six thousandths. So big picture place value we can keep going to the right of the decimal and we can start representing things that are I guess you could say more precise.