Consider the steps to convert 49% to a decimal.

Question

.The decimal point will move ___ places.

The decimal point will move to the_______.

49% written as a decimal  is _______.

Answer 1

49% means 49 hundredths. We know that 0.1 means 1 tenth because it's the next position to the right of the decimal point. The next position to the right is the hundredths position and 0.01 means 1 hundredth. So 49 hundredths is 49 times 1 hundredth. That means 0.49. So 49% is the same as 0.49. What did we do? 49 has an invisible decimal point after it: 49.0, so to convert 49% to 0.49 we move the decimal point two places to the left, so now it's before 49 instead of after it.