The first step to changing 3 50/10 into a decimal is to change it to an improper fraction. To do that, we need to multiply 3 by 10 and add its product to 50 in the numerator to get: 80/10. Now we will attempt to convert 80/10 to a decimal using one of the following methods:
Put in a nutshell, a fraction is written in terms of two parts separated by a line in between: the number above the line is called the numerator and the number below the line is called the denominator. To solve this question, we can use the division method to get a decimal: simply divide the numerator 80 by the denominator 10 to get the decimal:
80 (numerator) ÷ 10 (denominator) = 8
That’s it! When you convert 3 50/10 (or 80/10) to a decimal, 8 is your answer.
Another method is to change the denominator to a power of 10 (like 10, 100, 1000 etc.). This way, the fraction will be coming simpler to compute.
Even if our denominator is not a power of 10, we can make it one. If the denominator is a factor of a power of 10, like 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 25, 40, 50 and so on, then we can convert them into a power of 10. Since our denominator is 10, we can convert it because it is a factor of a power of 10.
To do that, we multiply 10 by 1 to make the denominator 10. And since we multiplied the denominator by 1, we also need to multiply the numerator by 1 too:
And finally, you get 8 as your answer when you convert 3 50/10 (or 80/10) to a decimal.
If this problem was a little difficult or you want to practice your skills on another one, give it a go on any one of these too!
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One thing we teach our students at Thinkster is that there are multiple ways to solve a math problem. This helps our students learn to think flexibly and non-linearly.
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