how to work out the decimal form of the fraction 1/12

Question

decimal form of 1/12 (one divided by twelve)

Answer 1

I should like to inform you that back in the late 1940s, in southern California, my Algebra teacher expected all of us students to know the decimal equivalents of 

 

1/n  where n = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 20, 25, 50

 

and also cases where the numerator was anything up to n-1 for said denominators n listed above.  Everyone in those classes regarded this as reasonable, because such fractions abound in real life.

 

1/12 = 0.083333... (infinitely repeating threes). You can see that this is so either by doing long division on paper, or perhaps using a calculator.

 

I HOPE that you know how to do long division 1 ÷ 12.  If not, your teacher should review this for you ASAP.