How do you change -1/2 into a decimal?

2 Answers
Oct 31, 2015

#-1/2=-0.5#

Explanation:

You can do this through division; #-1/2# is actually just a division problem:

#-1/2=-1÷2=-0.5#

Oct 31, 2015

See explanation

Explanation:

A decimal is another way to write a fraction whose denominator is a power of #10#, so if you want to change a fraction to decimal first thing is to see if you can reduce or expand the fraction to get such denominator:

In this case to get a deniminator of #10# you only have to multiply numerator and denominator by #5#

#-1/2=-(1*color(red)(5))/(2*color(red)(5))=-5/10=-0.5#

However this method does not always work. A method that works for every fraction is to calculete the long division of numerator and denominator to see if the decimal is finite. For example:

2:3=0.666...
0


20
18


=20
18


 20
 ....