HOW MANY HUNDREDTHS FIT IN A TENTH? - MATHS - 2025

Before knowing how many hundredths fit in a tenth, the concepts of tenths and hundredths must be clarified. The concept from which these words arise is that of a decimal fraction.

The uses of decimal fractions are more everyday than you can imagine. They can be applied from the prices of a product in a store, to the weight of a basket of fruit in the supermarket.

The comma in the image is called a "decimal point", but in the English and North American bibliography a "period" is used instead of the comma.

Decimal fraction

A decimal fraction is a fraction whose denominator is 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, or any other power of 10, hence the word decimal. For example 2 / 10,000, 53/10, 2,781 / 100, 321 / 1,000 are decimal fractions.

When writing a decimal fraction, the denominator is omitted and a sign (a decimal point) is placed to indicate the value of the number.

In the numerator number and to the right of the comma there must be as many numbers as there are zeros in the corresponding denominator.

Examples

- 2 / 10,000 would be written as 0.0002.

- 53/10 would be written as 5.3.

- 2,781 / 100 is written as 27.81.

- 321 / 1,000 is written as 0.321.

On the other hand, the fraction that represents the number in the previous image is 3.152 / 100, since the number has two digits to the right of the decimal point.

The number to the left of the comma is called the "integer part" while the number to the right is called the "decimal part."

Tenths, hundredths and thousandths

Just as the integer part of a number is made up of units, tens, and hundreds named from right to left, the decimal part is also made up from left to right in tenths, hundredths, and thousandths.

Tenths correspond to the first digit to the right of the decimal point, and the denominator of its decimal fraction is 10. For example, 3 tenths (0.3) is the same as 3/10.

On the other hand, 46/10 is equivalent to 46 tenths and its decimal writing is 4.6, which can also be read as 4 units and 6 tenths.

The same happens with hundredths (second digit to the right of the decimal point) and thousandths (third digit to the right of the decimal point), whose denominators in the decimal fraction are 100 and 1,000, respectively.

How many hundredths fit in a tenth?

With what is written above, it is known that a tenth is the same as 1/10 and that a hundredth is 1/100. In decimal notation we will have that a tenth is 0.1 and a hundredth is 0.01.

The key to answering this question is knowing how many times to add a hundredth to itself, so that the result is just one-tenth.

If we carry out the calculations, it will be seen that it is necessary to add 1 hundredth 10 times with itself to obtain a tenth.

Therefore, a tenth can fit 10 hundredths.

Another process that we can use to find out how many hundredths fit in a tenth is the following: a board with 100 squares is taken, then 1 square on the board represents one hundredth while any column (or row) of 10 squares represents 1 tenth of the board.

So to fill a row (1 tenth) it takes 10 squares (10 hundredths).

Relationship between hundredths and tenths

References

1. Bourdon, PL (1860). Elements of Arithmetic. Madrid: Don Ángel Calleja Bookstore.
2. Higher Institute of Teacher Training (Spain); Jesus López Ruiz. (2004). Numbers, Shapes and Volumes in the Child's Environment. Ministry of Education.
3. Mandri, F. (1837). Theoretical Exercises of Arithmetic. Campamar and Sons.
4. Martínez, JC (2014). Mathematical Competence N2. Ideaspropias Editorial SL
5. Mateos, ML (2013). The Royal Line. López Mateos Editors.
6. Palmer, CI, & Bibb, SF (1979). Practical Mathematics: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and Slide Rule (Reprint ed.). Reverte.