How do you write -5/8 as a decimal?

Question

How do you write -5/8 as a decimal?

2 Answers

Impact of this question

20135 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2017-09-06T10:03:43

$- 0.625$ $-0.625$

Explanation:

$Introduction to a way of thinking about this problem$ $color(blue)("Introduction to a way of thinking about this problem")$
As the 5 is less than 8 it may gives you a problem.

What follows is a bit of a cheat (not really)

Using the principle that we can change the 5 or any other number any way we wish as long as we include a way to turn the change back to its original value.

If we so wished we could change it as follows:

As given: $\frac{5}{8} \to 5 \times \frac{1}{8}$ $5/8->5xx1/8$

$= 50 \times \frac{1}{10} \times \frac{1}{8}$ $=50xx1/10xx1/8$

$= 500 \times \frac{1}{100} \times \frac{1}{8}$ $=500xx1/100xx1/8$

$= 5000 \times \frac{1}{1000} \times \frac{1}{8}$ $=5000xx1/1000xx1/8$

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$Answering the question$ $color(blue)("Answering the question")$

Ignoring the negative for now.

You accumulate the adjustment in this approach

$5 is less than 8 so change it to 50$ $color(green)("5 is less than 8 so change it to 50")$

$50 \times \frac{1}{8} = 6 remainder 2$ $50xx1/8=color(magenta)(6)" remainder 2 "$

$2 is less than 8 so change it to 20$ $color(green)("2 is less than 8 so change it to 20")$

$20 \times \frac{1}{8} = 2 remainder 4$ $20xx1/8=color(magenta)(2)" remainder 4 "$

$4 is less than 8 so change it to 40$ $color(green)("4 is less than 8 so change it to 40")$

$40 \times \frac{1}{8} = 5 remainder 0$ $40xx1/8=color(magenta)(5)" remainder 0"$

Putting our numbers together we have $625$ $color(magenta)(625)$
................................................................................................

$color(white)()$

However, we had $3 adjustments$ $color(green)("3 adjustments")$ so we multiply by three lots of $\frac{1}{10}$ $1/10$ to bring it back to the value it should be.

$625 \times \frac{1}{10} \times \frac{1}{10} \times \frac{1}{10} = 0.625$ $625xx1/10xx1/10xx1/10" = "0.625$

Putting the negative back in we have $- 0.625$ $-0.625$

Answer 2 · 2018-02-12T10:45:32

The same thing as the other solution but a neater presentation.

-0.625

Explanation:

For now forget about the negative. We can out it back at the end

Write 5 as $50 \times \frac{1}{10}$ $50xx1/10$

Start point $\to 50 \times \frac{1}{10}$ $->50xxcolor(green)(1/10)$
$color(magenta)(6)xx8 ->color(white)("dddd")ul(48larr" Subtract")$
$ul(color(white)(~~~~~~~~~.)2 color(white)(~~~~~~~~~))$

$color(white)("d")$
$color(white)("~~~~~~~~~~~~.")20xxcolor(green)(1/10)larr" remainder of 2 changed"$
$color(magenta)(2)xx8->color(white)("dddd")ul(16larr" Subtract")$
$ul(color(white)("dddddddddddd")4color(white)("ddddddddddd"))$

$color(white)("d")$
$color(white)("ddddddddddd")40xxcolor(green)(1/10) larr" Remainder of 4 changed"$
$color(magenta)(5)xx8->color(white)("dddd")ul(40larr" Subtract")$
$color(white)("dddddddddddd")0 larr" Stop"$

So for just the numbers we have:

$color(white)("d")$
$color(magenta)(625)color(green)(xx1/10xx1/10xx1/10)$

$color(magenta)(0.625)$

Now we put the 'negative state' back giving

$color(magenta)(-0.625)$

Science

Math

Humanities

... and beyond

How do you write -5/8 as a decimal?

2 Answers

Explanation:

Explanation:

Related questions

Impact of this question