is 1/5 closer to 0, 1/2 or 1

Question

I want to know how this is rounded.

Answer 1

think of it this way 1/5 is =2/10 and 1/2 is =5/10 and so 1/5 would be closer to 0 than 1/2 or 1

Answer 2

Hi, Giselle.

I think it would be easier to work in decimal numbers in order to compare these.

A fraction is another way to write a division problem; the numerator (top number) is divided by the denominator (bottom number). To change a fraction to a decimal, we do the division:

    ____
5  )  1               (That is supposed to be in long division format!)

So how do you divide into 1? Remember that it is a whole number, and that we can write a decimal behind it with one or more zeros without changing it, for example, $1 is the same as $1.00

   _0.2_
5 ) 1.0
    -1 0
        0

So doing that and dividing, we get an answer of 0.2  (This decimal ends so there is no rounding needed). To make it easier to compare it to 0, 1/2 and 1 we could rewrite those in decimal form as well.

0     --->     0.0
1/2  --->     0.5
1     --->     1.0

You may be able to tell now which number is closest to 1/5 (remember that it is equal to 0.2), but you can also put these on a number line, by dividing the space between 0 and 1 into tenths:

  -|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|-
   0     0.1     0.2     0.3    0.4     0.5    0.6    0.7    0.8     0.9      1

 

Hope this helps!