Question

Jenna figured out the cost of different fruits per piece, and wrote the unit costs as fractions. She wants to write each unit cost as a decimal to show the cost in cents. How can she write these common fractions as decimals?

Answer 1

Jenna can convert fractions to decimals by dividing the numerator by the denominator, and then multiply by 100 to convert the decimal to cents. Examples include ½ becoming 0.5 and ¼ becoming 0.25. This process allows her to communicate unit costs in cents accurately.

Step-by-step explanation:

Jenna can convert common fractions to decimals by dividing the numerator (the top number) by the denominator (the bottom number). For example, if the fraction is ½, she would divide 1 by 2 to get 0.5. This method works for all fractions, as it's essentially defining what the fraction means: the numerator divided by the denominator. When converting to cents, she can multiply the decimal by 100 to find the cost in cents. Additionally, she should remember to round to the nearest hundredth if necessary as cents are typically expressed to two decimal places.

To further explain, let's illustrate with examples for common fractions:

• ½ becomes 0.5 because 1 divided by 2 equals 0.5
• ¼ becomes 0.25 because 1 divided by 4 equals 0.25
• ¾ becomes 0.75 because 3 divided by 4 equals 0.75

Once Jenna has converted the fractions to decimals, she can easily communicate the unit costs of different fruits more precisely in cents.