decimels

[mollymish]

it has been awhile since I worked with decimals
can you tell me which is less .88 or .999, do I go by the
place value or subtract them??

 

[soroban]

Hello, Molly!

It has been awhile since I worked with decimals
Can you tell me which is less 0.88 or 0.999?
Do I go by the place value or subtract them??

You can eyeball them if you make the the same "length".

We have: \(\displaystyle \,0.880\)
. . . . and: \(\displaystyle \,0.999\)

Since \(\displaystyle \,880\,<\,999,\,\) then: \(\displaystyle \,0.880\,<\,0.999\)


Reasoning: \(\displaystyle \,\frac{880}{1000}\,<\,\frac{999}{1000}\) . . . got it?

 

[Denis]

it has been awhile since I worked with decimals
can you tell me which is less .88 or .999, do I go by the
place value or subtract them??

Convert them to non decimals; which is less: 880 or 999?

For your info, that conversion meant multiplying BOTH by 1000,
because there are 3 digits after the decimal point in .999;
the .88 (in this case) is really .880 (zero was dropped).

You could subtract them instead, but like this:
.999
.880
====
.119