How do you write -5/8 as a decimal?
2 Answers
Explanation:
As the 5 is less than 8 it may gives you a problem.
What follows is a bit of a cheat (not really)
Using the principle that we can change the 5 or any other number any way we wish as long as we include a way to turn the change back to its original value.
If we so wished we could change it as follows:
As given:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ignoring the negative for now.
You accumulate the adjustment in this approach
Putting our numbers together we have
................................................................................................
However, we had
Putting the negative back in we have
The same thing as the other solution but a neater presentation.
-0.625
Explanation:
For now forget about the negative. We can out it back at the end
Write 5 as
Start point
So for just the numbers we have:
Now we put the 'negative state' back giving