Dr Beth Mc Culloch Vinson Athens State University

Dr. Beth Mc. Culloch Vinson Athens State University PT 3 Grant Funding, Summer 2000

This is “one whole” square. If we divide it in half we have two pieces. Each piece is “one-half” of the whole.

We write “one whole” like this: 1. 0 We write the fraction “one-half” like this: 1 2

Everything on the left -hand side of a number refers to a whole number. 1. 0 whole parts of a whole So when we write “ 1. 0” we mean “one whole” and “no parts. ”

0. 5 Everything on the right -hand side of a number refers to parts of a whole. So when we write the fraction “one-half” as a decimal number it looks like this: 0. 5

0. 5 is the decimal equivalent of the fraction 1 2

0. 5 whole parts of a whole 0. 5 means that there are 0 whole numbers and there are 5 parts of a whole number.

0. 5 1 1 2 2 Looking at the box above you can see that 0. 5 + 0. 5 = 1 or half + half = whole

Let’s do fourths now.

This is “one whole” square. 1. 0 1 1 4 1 4 4 This is that same whole square divided into “fourths”.

Fourths are also called quarters. 1 1 4 1 4 4 There are 4 quarters in 1 dollar. There also 4 quarters (fourths) in 1 whole.

0. 25 That makes it easy to know the decimal equivalent of fourths. It is: 0. 25

A Project Developed for Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT 3) By Dr. Beth Mc. Culloch Vinson Athens State University, College of Education http: //www. athens. edu/vinsobm