Reading Decimal Places
Identify the value of each digit in numbers given to three decimal places (e.g. in 4.378, the 7 represents 7 hundredths)
What a learner can do afterwards
- State the value of each digit in 2.635 (2 ones, 6 tenths, 3 hundredths, 5 thousandths)
- Explain the relationship between adjacent decimal places (each place is ten times smaller)
- Write a number given digit values (e.g. 4 ones, 0 tenths, 7 hundredths, 3 thousandths = 4.073)
The lesson
You already know how to read whole numbers: ones, tens, hundreds. Decimals continue that same pattern, but on the other side of the point. Right after the point comes tenths, then hundredths, then thousandths.
Look at 2.635. The 2 is ones. The 6 is tenths. The 3 is hundredths. The 5 is thousandths.
Each place you move right cuts the value by ten. Tenths divided by ten gives hundredths. Hundredths divided by ten gives thousandths.
To write a number from its digit values: 4 ones, 0 tenths, 7 hundredths, 3 thousandths. Put each digit in its spot: 4.073. Don't forget the 0 as a placeholder for tenths.
Count the spots after the point: first is tenths, second is hundredths, third is thousandths, and each one is ten times smaller than the one before.
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.