5.05 Compare decimal numbers
Are you ready?
Remembering how to compare whole numbers is going to help us compare decimals in this lesson. Let's try this practice problem to review.
Which number is the smallest?
$69596$69596
A$69796$69796
B
Learn
We can use place value columns to help us compare numbers with decimals.
If we have $0.342$0.342, and we are comparing it to $0.45$0.45, we can write them both in a place value table and compare which number is larger, moving across the columns from left to right. We can fill the empty columns with $0$0s.
| Ones | $.$. | Tenths | Hundredths | Thousandths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0$0 | $.$. | $3$3 | $4$4 | $2$2 |
| $0$0 | $.$. | $4$4 | $5$5 | $0$0 |
In this video we looks at some examples, and see how we can compare decimals.
Apply
Question 1
Enter the greater than ($>$>) or less than ($<$<) symbol in the box to make this number sentence true.
$0.022\editable{}0.023$0.0220.023
Question 2
Enter the greater than ($>$>), less than ($<$<), or equals ($=$=) symbol in the box to make this number sentence true.
$0.882\editable{}0.88$0.8820.88
$>$> means 'greater than' and $<$< means 'less than'.