Multiplying Decimals

The shortcut to decimal multiplication 1) Multiply as if there were no decimal points. 2) Place the decimal point in the answer. The number of decimal digits in the answer is exactly the sum of the number of decimal digits in each of the factors. Examples:

0.05 0.7
5 7 is 35. The factors 0.05 and 0.7 have 2 and 1 decimal digits. The answer has to have 3, so the answer is 0.035. Solve them! a. 0.4 0.8 = b. 0.7 1.1 = c. 0.02 0.9 =

0.1 1.2 1.1

1 12 11 = 132. The factors have 1 and 1 and 1 decimal digits. The answer has to have 3, so so the answer is 0.132.

31 0.03 2
31 3 2 = 186. The factors have have 0, 2, and 0 decimal digits The answer has to have 2, so the answer is 1.86.

When you first multiply the numbers, ignoring the decimal point, the answer to that multiplication may end in one or more zeros. That is no problem. Apply the rule to the number ending in zeros as you would to any other number. However, after placing the decimal point, you may simplify the final answer by dropping the ending decimal zeros.

50 0.006
50 6 = 300. The factors have 0 and 3 decimal digits, so the answer also has to have 3. Therefore, the answer is 0.300. This simplifies to 0.3. Solve them
a. b. c. d.

400 0.05
400 5 = 2000. The factors have 0 and 2 decimal digits, so the answer has to have 2. Therefore, the answer is 20.00. You can simplify that to 20.

0.4 0.5 = 20 0.06 = 0.9 0.5 0.2 = 40 0.05 =

Multiply Decimals by 10, 100, and 1000

When you multiply whole numbers by 10, 100, 1000 and so on, you can use this shortcut: Simply tag as many zeros to the prod uct as there are in the factor 10, 100, 1000 etc. There is a similar shortcut for multiplying decimal numbers by 10, 100, 1000 and so on: You move the decimal point to the right as many places as there are zeros in the factors. 10 0 . 4 9 = 04.9 = 4.9 Move the decimal point one step to the right. 100 2 . 6 5 = 2 6 5 . = 265 Move the decimal point two steps to the right. The number 265. would be 265.0 or just 265

Why does it work this way? Lets consider multiplying by 10. Our number system is based on ten. Each place value unit (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.) is 10 times the previous unit. Each number can be broken down as a sum of the different place values. For example 3,849 = 3,000 + 800 + 40 + 9. When each one of these parts is multiplied by 10, they become 30,000 + 8,000 + 400 + 90 = 38,490. The shortcut is that you simply tag a zero to the number. It works the same way with decimals: for example 0.429 = 0.4 + 0.02 + 0.009. When each of the parts is multiplied by 10, the whole thing becomes 4 + 0.2 + 0.09 = 4.29. It looks like the decimal point got moved ... but in reality the value of each digit increased tenfold.

a. 10 0.04 = b. 100 0.04 = c. 1000 0.04 = d. 10 2.06 = e. 100 5.439 = f. 100 4.03 =