Decimal numbers that may be expressed as a fraction, the denominator of which is a power of ten. For example, the numerals formula_5 represent the fractions , , . More generally, a decimal with digits after the separator represents the fraction with denominator , whose numerator is the integer obtained by removing the separator. Expressed as a fully reduced fraction, the decimal numbers are those, whose denominator is a product of a power of 2 by a power of 5. Thus the smallest denominators of decimal numbers are The "integer part", or "integral part" of a decimal is the integer written
Decimal For example, 15.00m may indicate that the measurement error is less than one centimeter, while 15m may mean that the length is roughly fifteen meters, and that the error may exceed 10 cm. For representing a negative number, a minus sign is placed before . The numeral formula_2 represents the number Therefore, the contribution of each digit to the value of a number depends on its position in the numeral. That is, the decimal system is a positional numeral system The numbers that are represented by decimal numeral are the decimal fractions (sometimes called decimal numbers), that is, the rational