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Last updated on March 17th, 2025
It is a simple question on decimal conversion. Firstly, we have to learn fractions and decimals. A fraction represents a part from the whole. It has two parts, numerator (number on the top) here, 7 represents how many parts out of the whole. The denominator (number below) shows how many parts make the whole, here it is 8. A decimal is a way to represent the number that is not whole, using a (.) or a decimal to separate the whole part from the fraction part. The numbers to the left of the decimal point represent the whole, and that to the right represents the fractional part.
21 7/8 in decimals can be written as 21.875. This is a terminating decimal.
To convert 21 7/8 to a decimal, we will first convert the fraction 7/8 to a decimal using division.
Step 1: Identify the numerator and denominator because the numerator (7) will be taken as the dividend and the denominator (8) will be taken as the divisor.
Step 2: Divide 7 by 8. Since 7 is less than 8, we use decimal division by adding a decimal point and zero to make it 70.
Step 3: Now divide 70 by 8. The closest multiple is 8 × 8 = 64.
Step 4: Write 8 in the quotient place. Subtract 64 from 70, which gives 6.
Step 5: Bring down another 0, making it 60, and divide by 8. The closest multiple is 8 × 7 = 56.
Step 6: Write 7 in the quotient place. Subtract 56 from 60, which gives 4.
Step 7: Bring down another 0, making it 40, and divide by 8. The exact division occurs here as 8 × 5 = 40.
Step 8: Write 5 in the quotient place, and there is no remainder. The decimal for 7/8 is 0.875. Adding the whole part, we have 21 + 0.875 = 21.875.