Fractions on a number line
Understand and use place value for decimals, measures, and integers of any size; extend the number system to include all positive and negative integers, decimals, and fractions on a single number line
What a learner can do afterwards
- Identify the value of any digit in numbers of any size including decimals
- Place positive and negative integers, decimals, and fractions on a number line
- Use place value to compare and order numbers across the full number system
The lesson
A number line is not just for counting whole numbers. It can hold every kind of number you know: whole numbers, negative numbers, decimals, and fractions, all placed in order from smallest to largest.
Decimals fit between whole numbers. The first digit after the decimal point counts tenths, one of ten equal pieces of the space between two whole numbers. That is why 0.5 sits exactly halfway between 0 and 1.
When you compare numbers, check the same place value first: ones, then tenths, then hundredths. Do not just compare how many digits a number has: 0.7 is bigger than 0.65, even though 7 is a smaller digit than 65.
Every number, negative or positive, whole or fraction, has one exact spot on the number line, and place value tells you where it goes.
Watch it
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.