What is 1/2 as a decimal?
A decimal number can be defined as a number whose whole number part and the fractional part is separated by a decimal point.
Answer: 1/2 as a decimal is 0.5
Let's look at the two methods to write 1/2 as a decimal.
Explanation:
Method 1: Writing 1/2 as a decimal using the division method.
To convert any fraction to decimal form, we just need to divide its numerator by the denominator.
Here, the fraction is 1/2 which means we need to perform 1 ÷ 2
This gives the answer as 0.5. So, 1/2 as a decimal is 0.5
Method 2: Writing 1/2 as a decimal by converting the denominator to powers of 10.
Step 1: Find a number such that we can multiply by the denominator of the fraction to make it 10 or 100 or 1000 and so on.
Step 2: Multiply both numerator and denominator by that number to convert it into an equivalent fraction.
Step 3: Then write down just the numerator, putting the decimal point in the correct place, that is, one space from the right-hand side for every zero in the denominator.
1/2 = (1 × 5) / (2 × 5) = 5/10 = 0.5
Irrespective of the methods used, the answer to 1/2 as a decimal will always remain the same.
You can also verify your answer using Cuemath's Fraction to Decimal Calculator.