write five tenths as fraction and as a decimal.
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
Correct Answer:
- Fraction: 5/10
- Decimal: 0.5
Explanation
To understand how five tenths can be written as both a fraction and a decimal, we need to break down the meaning of “tenths.” In mathematics, the term “tenths” refers to the parts of a whole that has been divided into ten equal pieces. When someone says “five tenths,” it means that five out of ten equal parts are being considered.
As a fraction, five tenths is written as 5/10. This tells us that the whole is divided into ten equal parts, and we are looking at five of them. Fractions are used to express a part of a whole, and the number on the top (called the numerator) shows how many parts are being considered, while the number on the bottom (called the denominator) shows how many parts make up the whole. So in this case, 5 is the numerator and 10 is the denominator.
Now let’s look at the decimal form. The word “decimal” comes from the Latin word “decem,” which means ten. In decimal notation, the place immediately to the right of the decimal point is called the “tenths place.” If we take five tenths and write it in decimal form, we place the number 5 in the tenths place, resulting in 0.5. This means we have five parts out of ten in the form of a decimal.
You can also verify that 5/10 and 0.5 are equivalent by performing the division 5 divided by 10, which equals 0.5.
It is worth noting that 5/10 can be simplified to 1/2 because both 5 and 10 are divisible by 5. However, in the context of understanding tenths, we often leave it as 5/10 to highlight the connection to the decimal system.
