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Let's explore describing and writing equivalent decimals of halves and quarters.

When you think about having to describe halves, quarters or three-quarters, you might be used to drawing them as images to help you, like these examples:

The following number line images are also a useful way to represent halves and quarters.

It's helpful to remember that three quarters is just one quarter + one quarter + one quarter. We can say that three quarters is three lots of one quarter.

Look at the number lines below and the ways that different points on the lines can be labelled.

Now compare the number lines above with the ones below - what do you notice?

By comparing the position of the coloured bar on the three number lines we can see that one half = five tenths = 0.5.

This means that 0.5 is the decimal equivalent of a half.

Now look at the following number lines to see how we can represent quarters in fractions and equivalent decimal form.

By comparing the position of the coloured bar on the three number lines we can see that one quarter = twenty-five hundredths = 0.25.

0.25 is the decimal equivalent of a quarter.

Look at this final set of number lines now, checking closely the position of the coloured line in each one. What does the other information in the number lines tell you?

Exactly! We can see that three quarters = seventy-five hundredths = 0.75.

0.75 is the decimal equivalent of three quarters.

The following images are another helpful way to remember what we've learned.

One half is equivalent to five tenths or 0.5.

One quarter is equivalent to twenty-five hundredths or 0.25.

Three quarters are equivalent to seventy-five hundredths or 0.75.

How much do you know about equivalent decimals of halves and quarters? Have a go at this quiz to find out!