We need to deal with recurring or repeating decimals in school, in our competitive exams and even later.

Today well discuss a shortcut trick to convert recurring decimals to fractions. However, to understand its effectiveness, we need to first understand the method taught in schools. Just follow the steps below carefully. Say you need to find the value of 0.44444 Step 1: Let x be the value of the repeating decimal which you are converting to fraction x = 0.44444444 We know the repeating digit is 4 Step 2: Multiply x by a power of 10, such that the resultant has same repeating digits on the right side of decimal. In this case if we multiply 10 both side, we get 10x = 4.44444444. Step 3: Subtract output of step 2 from step 1 10x x = 4.44444444. - 0.44444444. 9x = 4 x = 4/9 Hence we have converted decimal into fraction. Another example, X = 1.3454545 Multiply x by 10, we get 10x = 13.45454545 Multiplying x by 1000 we get, 1000 = 1345.454545. Subtracting 10x from 1000x we get, 1000x 10x = 1345.454545. 13.45454545 990x = 1332 X = 1332/990 =1 (342/990) So again we have converted recurring decimal to fraction.

Shortcut trick to convert recurring decimals into fractions The same thing which we have done above can be done just by looking at the original number. The shortcut trick is explained below step by step with example for easy understanding Say if the number is 2.13636363 First ignore the digit to the left of decimal. Well deal with it later. For the remaining part i.e. right hand side part of the decimal, we need to distinguish repeating and non-repeating (fixed) digits. To get the denominator of the fraction, we need to use 9s for each digit of the repeating part. The fixed digit(s) is offset by putting a trailing zero (990). To get the numerator, we need to subtract the fixed part from the number (without repetition) 2.13636363 conversion in fraction: First ignore 2 initially. Right side of the decimal have 1 fixed digit and 2 digits in the repeating portion. Hence the denominator will be 990 For the numerator, we subtract the fixed part from the number (without repetition). Hence Numerator = 136 -1 = 135 2 which was ignored earlier will simply be added to the left of the resultant fraction Hence the answer becomes, 2 (135/990) Example 2 Converting the easy one using the above shortcut: 0.44444444. into fraction 0.44444444. = Since there is only one repeating digit we take denominator as 9 and for numerator we take the repeating digit itself as there is no fixed digit, hence nothing to subtract. Hence it is equal to 4/9

Example 3 1.3454545. Numerator = the number (without repeatation) the fixed digit = 345 3 Denominator = two 9s followed by 0 as there are 2 recurring digits and 1 fixed digit. 1 is written as it is separately before the fraction =1 (345-3/990) = 1 (342/990) By posting a comment below, let me know if you found this method useful. You can even ask your questions here.