As briefly discussed before, non-whole numbers can also be described as decimals, in which the wholes are written before a decimal point, and portions are written after a decimal point.
Furthermore, as seen in Module 1: Number and Whole Numbers, each place value name behind a decimal point ends in -ths as opposed to -s, bearing a similar naming convention to whole number place values depending on how far the value is from the units. Here is a recap of the place values of digits after a decimal:
| Place Value |
Digit |
| Units |
1 |
| Tenths |
0.1 |
| Hundredths |
0.01 |
| Thousandths |
0.001 |
| Ten Thousandths |
0.0001 |
Please note, some decimals may be represented with trailing zeros. That is, zeros that follow the digits in a decimal. Naturally, as zero has no value, this does not add any additional value to the decimal. Thus, a decimal such as 0.5 is equal to 0.50, 0.500, 0.5000, etc.
