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Contributor: Joanna D'Orazio Mignella. Lesson ID: 14184
Have you ever built a tower? You know how you put pieces together and take them apart to clean up? Numbers can be taken apart and put back together just like that!
Picture yourself standing beside this towering giant. It would make you feel tiny.
Imagine constructing a tower with blocks. You stack those colorful bricks together and sometimes take them apart to adjust your design.
Just like you can build and reshape with blocks, mathematicians break numbers apart to understand them better.
Are you ready to explore how to break down decimals into their parts using expanded notation?
Discover how these tiny numbers can tell you big stories!
Building and breaking things down helps you understand how they work.
Just like when you create something cool with blocks, you can break down different numbers to discover how they function! Mathematicians do this with decimal numbers by breaking them apart and then putting them back together.
Expanded notation is a powerful tool that mathematicians use to understand decimals better.
To break apart a decimal into expanded notation, you write each digit according to its place value.
Look at the decimal 345.67.
Start by reading the decimal aloud.
“three hundred forty-five and sixty-seven hundredths”
Great work!
Now, line up each digit according to its place value.
Next, multiply each digit by its place value.
Finally, add those results together to show the decimal in expanded notation.
Nicely done!
To see even more examples of decimals in expanded notation, check out this video.
Now it’s your turn!
Try writing 23.181 in expanded notation. Use the place value chart to help you line up the digits.
When ready, flip over the card to check your answer.
Fantastic effort!
Now, head to the Got It? section to keep exploring decimals by breaking them apart into expanded notation!
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