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Decimal fractions (sometimes called decimal numbers, especially in contexts involving explicit fractions) are the rational numbers that may be expressed as a fraction whose denominator is a power of ten. [8] For example, the decimal expressions ,,,, represent the fractions 8 / 10 , 1489 / 100 , 79 / 100000 , + 1618 / ...
To change a common fraction to a decimal, do a long division of the decimal representations of the numerator by the denominator (this is idiomatically also phrased as "divide the denominator into the numerator"), and round the answer to the desired accuracy. For example, to change 1 / 4 to a decimal, divide 1.00 by 4 (" 4 into 1.00 ...
Also the converse is true: The decimal expansion of a rational number is either finite, or endlessly repeating. Finite decimal representations can also be seen as a special case of infinite repeating decimal representations. For example, 36 ⁄ 25 = 1.44 = 1.4400000...; the endlessly repeated sequence is the one-digit sequence "0".
[4] [5] In many contexts, when a number is spoken, the function of the separator is assumed by the spoken name of the symbol: comma or point in most cases. [6] [2] [7] In some specialized contexts, the word decimal is instead used for this purpose (such as in International Civil Aviation Organization-regulated air traffic control communications).
The set of rational numbers is not complete. For example, the sequence (1; 1.4; 1.41; 1.414; 1.4142; 1.41421; ...), where each term adds a digit of the decimal expansion of the positive square root of 2, is Cauchy but it does not converge to a rational number (in the real numbers, in contrast, it converges to the positive square root of 2).
Alternatively, and for greater numbers, one may say for 1 ⁄ 2 "one over two", for 5 ⁄ 8 "five over eight", and so on. This "over" form is also widely used in mathematics. Fractions together with an integer are read as follows: 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 is "one and a half" 6 + 1 ⁄ 4 is "six and a quarter" 7 + 5 ⁄ 8 is "seven and five eighths"
For example, in the decimal system (base 10), the numeral 4327 means (4×10 3) + (3×10 2) + (2×10 1) + (7×10 0), noting that 10 0 = 1. In general, if b is the base, one writes a number in the numeral system of base b by expressing it in the form a n b n + a n − 1 b n − 1 + a n − 2 b n − 2 + ... + a 0 b 0 and writing the enumerated ...
[3] [4] The word mantissa was introduced by Henry Briggs. [5] For a positive number written in a conventional positional numeral system (such as binary or decimal), its fractional part hence corresponds to the digits appearing after the radix point, such as the decimal point in English. The result is a real number in the half-open interval [0, 1