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Contributor: Ashley Nail Murphy. Lesson ID: 14120
Everyone knows the $ and ¢ symbols when it comes to money! Meet the less famous, but almost more important, decimal point! A decimal point is an important tool to count money!
Imagine you are at a carnival! There are tons of games, snacks, and rides everywhere!
You want to try the claw machine game. The game costs $1.
You do not have a dollar bill, but you do have some coins in your pocket! Luckily, you know that 100 cents equals the value of 1 dollar.
You pull out your coins and start counting.
You look at the coins in your hand. There are quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies!
Imagine you organize your coins like this.
You need to find out if these coins add up to $1.00.
Here’s where the decimal point helps!
What is the Decimal Point in Money?
A decimal point is a tiny dot that separates dollars from cents.
You’ve probably seen it before! Imagine you’re at the store buying milk, which costs $4.36.
The decimal point is the dot between the 4 and the 3. The number before the decimal point tells you how many dollars the milk costs. The number after the decimal point tells you how many cents the milk costs.
The milk costs 4 dollars and 36 cents. Remember that 100 cents equals the value of 1 dollar, so 36 cents is a part of a dollar — less than one whole dollar.
Use the Decimal to Count Money!
Now, you are ready to count the coins in your pocket!
Imagine the money in your pocket again.
Each quarter has a value of 25 cents. Each dime has a value of 10 cents. The nickel has a value of 5 cents. Each penny has a value of 1 cent.
Add the values of each coin together to find your total value.
25 + 25 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 89
You can also take a shortcut! Combine the values of the groups of similar coins. For example, two quarters equals 50 cents, and four pennies equals 4 cents.
50 + 30 + 5 + 4 = 89
The value of the coins is 89 cents!
You could write 89¢. Or, you can use your new tool, the decimal point!
Remember, cents go after the decimal point.
100¢ equals $1, but you only have 89¢.
89 is less than 100, so you have 0 dollars.
Now, you can easily see the value of your money!
The claw machine costs $1.00 at the carnival, and you have $0.89 in your pocket.
Even though you don’t have enough for the claw machine, there are plenty of other games at this pretend carnival!
Continue to the Got It? section to try more practice with counting money and using the decimal point!
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