Question Video: Converting Percentages to Decimals Mathematics • 6th Grade

Video Transcript

Convert 46 and two-fifths percent into a decimal.

To go from a percent to a decimal, we take our percent value and divide by 100. And that means if we want 46 and two-fifths percent as a decimal, we need to divide 46 and two-fifths by 100. However, 46 and two-fifths is a mixed number. In order to divide this by 100, we first want to deal with our fractional piece. We want to write this fractional value as a decimal.

We can do that by dividing two by five. Five goes into two zero times, so we add a decimal and a zero to the right of the two. Five goes into 20 four times. Bring up the decimal. And we can say that two divided by five is four-tenths, 0.4.

A second method for finding the decimal value will be to see if we could write two-fifths as a fraction out of 10. Five times two equals 10, and two times two equals four. This shows that two-fifths equals four-tenths. And that means in a decimal number, there’ll be a four in the tenths place.

Now that we know we have 46.4, we can divide 46.4 by 100. To do that, we move the digits two places to the right. The four in the tens place moves two places to the right. The six in the ones place moves two places to the right. And the four in the tenths place moves two places to the right so that we have .464. Or more commonly, we’d have a place holder in the ones place, 0.464.

We’re saying that 46 and two-fifths percent written as a decimal is 0.464.