Decimal fractions

The decimal numeral system (also called base-ten and occasionally called denary) has ten as its base, which, in decimal, is written 10, as is the base in every positional numeral system. It is the numerical base most widely used by modern civilizations.

Decimal notation often refers to a base-10 positional notation such as the Hindu-Arabic numeral system; however, it can also be used more generally to refer to non-positional systems such as Roman or Chinese numerals which are also based on powers of ten.

A decimal number, or just decimal, refers to any number written in decimal notation, although it is more commonly used to refer to numbers that have a fractional part separated from the integer part with a decimal separator (e.g. 11.25).

A decimal may be a terminating decimal, which has a finite fractional part (e.g. 15.600); a repeating decimal, which has an infinite (non-terminating) fractional part made up of a repeating sequence of digits (e.g. 5.123144); or an infinite decimal, which has a fractional part that neither terminates nor has an infinitely repeating pattern (e.g. 3.14159265...). Decimal fractions have terminating decimal representations and other fractions have repeating decimal representations, whereas irrational numbers have infinite non-repeating decimal representations.

Decimal notation is the writing of numbers in a base-ten numeral system. Examples are Brahmi numerals, Greek numerals, Hebrew numerals, Roman numerals, and Chinese numerals, as well as the Hindu-Arabic numerals used by speakers of many European languages. Roman numerals have symbols for the decimal powers (1, 10, 100, 1000) and secondary symbols for half these values (5, 50, 500). Brahmi numerals have symbols for the nine numbers 1–9, the nine decades 10–90, plus a symbol for 100 and another for 1000. Chinese numerals have symbols for 1–9, and additional symbols for powers of ten, which in modern usage reach 10⁷².

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