Question

How do you express $$0.5$$ as a fraction in simplest form?

Answer 1

Hint: To convert a decimal to fraction, first divide decimal by 1 to make given decimal to fraction, then multiply both numerator and denominator by 10 to make a decimal to whole number in number and further simplify by using highest common factor of both numerator and denominator.

Complete step-by-step solution:
To find the equivalent fraction for decimal point number 0.5 manually,
Consider the given decimal value
$$\Rightarrow 0.5$$
To write it as a fraction by divide 1
$$\Rightarrow {\displaystyle \frac{0.5}{1}}$$
To make decimal to whole number in numerator
Multiply both numerator and denominator by 10 for every number after the decimal point:
As we have one number after the decimal point, hence we multiply both numerator and denominator by 10. then,
$$\Rightarrow {\displaystyle \frac{0.5}{1}}\times {\displaystyle \frac{10}{10}}$$
$$\Rightarrow {\displaystyle \frac{5}{10}}$$
To simplify or reduce the fraction to simplest form.
The factors of 5 are 5 and 1
The factors of 10 are 1, 2, 5 and 10.
The highest common factor of 5 and 10 is 5
Divide the fraction both numerator and denominator by 5, then
$$\Rightarrow {\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}$$
Hence we have converted the decimal into a fraction. The obtained fraction is an improper fraction.
Hence, the equivalent fraction of the given decimal point number $$0.5$$ is $${\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}$$.

Note: The number can be converted from one form to the other form. For the conversion of numbers, we have some rule or method. By using the specific methods and rules we can convert the number. So to convert the decimal number we have to multiply and divide the number by multiples of 10. The multiple of 10 depends on the number present after the decimal point.