How to write in decimal notation

Summary: You learned how to read and write decimals in this lesson. When writing a mixed number as a decimal, the fractional part must be converted to decimal digits. Decimals are named by the place of the last digit. The hyphen is an important indicator when reading and writing decimals.

Decimal Notation in the United States In the United States, we use the decimal or period ~. to represent the difference between whole numbers and partial numbers. We use the comma ~ ^, _ to separate groups of three places on the whole numbers side. This might be different from the way you currently write numbers.

Writing a number with a decimal is known as decimal notation. It is a way of showing parts of a whole when the whole is a power of ten. In other words, decimals are another way of writing fractions whose denominators are powers of ten.

Scientific notation (also called standard form or exponential notation) is a way of writing numbers that accommodates values too large or small to be conveniently written in standard decimal notation. In scientific notation, all numbers are written like this: a × 10b.