Sign Up
School Account Sign Up
Contributor: Elephango Editors. Lesson ID: 10930
What's the difference between $1.00 and $10.00? Plenty, depending on where the decimal point is! A clever video review of place value, and lots of fun online games teach you about decimal place value!
On the way to the store, you and your dad stop at the gas station to put fuel in your car. While your dad is pumping gas, you notice these numbers on the pump:
11.35 and 4.506
You may have noticed that both numbers have decimal points!
Both numbers have 4 digits, but the decimal point is in different spots.
You probably also noticed 11.35 represents the price of the gas, and 4.506 represents the gallons of gas.
Well, let's start with the decimal point. A decimal point separates the whole number and the fractional part of a number.
When saying decimals out loud, you say "and" for the decimal point because it represents the combining of a whole number and a fractional part.
A decimal, like 0.1, is equal to 1/10 and represents one-tenth of the whole number 1.
A decimal and a fraction are similar in that they both represent part of a whole.
Let's look at the first number on the gas pump:
11.35
You notice the whole number, 11. The number 11 is made up of 1 ten and 1 one. In a place value chart it looks like this:
Next, there is a decimal point. Remember, this symbolizes the combination of a whole number followed by a fractional part.
The fractional part in this number is .35. This can be also written as the fraction:
| 35 | |
| 100 |
Think of this in pennies. The gas costs $11.35 or 11 whole dollars and 35 pennies.
A penny is a part of a whole dollar. It takes 100 pennies to make a whole dollar. So 35 pennies is also 35/100 of a dollar.
Let's put the fractional part of this number into the place value chart:
Now, let's look at the next number on the gas pump:
4.506
There is a whole number of 4 and a fractional part of 506/1000:
You used 4 whole gallons of gas and 506/1000 gallons of gas.
As you move further right on a place value chart, the value of the numbers gets smaller.
For example, 0.1 is greater than 0.001 just like 1/10 is greater than 1/1000.
To learn more about decimal place value, watch Decimal Place Value Song | Tenths and Hundredths | 5th Grade from Math Songs by NUMBEROCK:
Click NEXT to visit the Got It? section to try out your new skills!
Supplies
FAVORITE
Like