Rational numbers

Rational numbers are any numbers that can be written as a fraction.

They have the form a/b with a and b are integers and b not equal to zero.

Examples of numbers that are rational are:

2/3     5/2    1/4    2     -8/2    0

Now, why are 2 and 0 examples of such numbers?

It is because 2 and 0 can be written as 2/1 and 0/1

We can also write rational numbers as a decimals.

We do this by performing a quick division that is dividing the numerator by the denominator

For instance,

2/5 = 0.4    or  

2/5 = 0.4000000 because you can continue division to keep getting zeros for the decimal places after 4



The bar on top of 0 means that if we continue to perform long division, we will keep getting an infinite number of zeros. Another way to convert 2/5 into a decimal is to notice that we can multiply 5 by 20 and 2 by 20 to get 40/100 and 40/100 = 0.40.

Diving by 100 or any other power of 10 is a straightforward process.

If you are dividing by 10, just move the decimal point one place to the left.

If you are dividing by 100, just move the decimal point 2 places to the left.

and so forth...

For 40/100, the decimal point is after 0 for 40.

Moving that two places to the left bring the decimal point right before the 4.

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