Fractions in Decimal Disguise

A fraction and a decimal can look completely different... yet show exactly the SAME amount. Imagine three slices of a four-slice pizza beside the number zero point seven five. Could they really be twins? Watch closely - their disguise is about to disappear!

Start with one whole bar. Cut it into four EQUAL parts. Each part is one quarter, so three shaded parts make three quarters. Equal matters. If the pieces are different sizes, you cannot count them as equal fractional parts - even if three pieces are shaded. Now split every quarter into twenty-five tiny equal squares. Four groups of twenty-five make one hundred squares altogether. Three groups make seventy-five shaded squares. So three quarters is the same as seventy-five hundredths... and seventy-five hundredths is zero point seven five. Look at the decimal places. The seven means seven tenths. The five means five hundredths. Together, that is seventy-five hundredths of the whole. The picture has not changed size. Only its NAME has changed - from a fraction name to a decimal name.

Try this GL-style question. Which decimal is equal to three quarters? Is it zero point three four, zero point four three, zero point seven five, or zero point eight? Pause and choose... then let us prove it, step by step. Three quarters means three out of four equal parts. To turn four into one hundred, multiply by twenty-five. Whatever you do to the bottom, you MUST do to the top. Three times twenty-five is seventy-five. So three quarters becomes seventy-five hundredths. Seventy-five hundredths is written as zero point seven five. That matches the third answer. Circle it! The other digits may contain a three or a four, but simply squeezing the fraction's numbers beside a decimal point does not preserve the amount.

Remember: a fraction and a decimal can name the SAME amount. Keep the parts equal, rename the fraction in tenths or hundredths, then write the matching decimal. You can see through the disguise now - and you are ready to convert with confidence!