How to Multiply Decimals

Multiplication was always a headache for me, during my school. I never fancied numbers, and so I never like mathematics. I called it my 'Nemesis'! So you can guess how bad I was at this subject. And when it came to working with decimals, everything appeared to me in French and German, except English. But then I had some really great teachers, and yes loving parents, who always showed me the right way. So after tons of scolding from my teachers and lots of practice from my side, I finally got hold of some of the easiest rules in mathematics. And one of them was multiplication using decimals. And to tell you the fact, mathematics is one of my favorite subjects now.

A Step by Step Tutorial for Multiplying Decimals

Here, I would be putting down the instructions first, showing you an easy way to multiply decimals, with the help of a simple example: 0.25 X 0.25

• Here, we would multiply the numbers first, meaning 25 X 25 (ignoring the decimals).
• The result that we get is 625.
• Now, we would count the number of decimal places in the numbers which we intend to multiply. In this example, the number of decimal places is 4.
• Coming back to 625, here we would put the decimal point by starting from the right and moving towards the left, by 4 places. So this gives the answer 0.0625

So what do we get from 0.25 X 0.25 is 0.0625. You may be wondering what is the '0' doing in the answer. Well, as you understand from the above instruction, we had to move left by 4 places. However, there were only three numbers in 625. So to make it 4, the '0' was added to the final answer. Don't worry about it. Adding a zero won't do any harm. The following examples would help you grab the concept of decimal multiplication better.

Multiplying Decimals by Decimals

Example #1

4.77 X 1.88

= 477 X 188 [Ignoring the decimals]
= 89676
= 8.9676 [since there are 4 decimal places in total, we had to move by 4 places towards the left].

Example #2

0.35 X 0.4

= 35 X 4
= 140
= 0.140
= 0.14 [0 can be ignored after the decimal point.]

Example #3

5.7 X 4.7

= 57 X 47
= 2679
= 26.79

Example #4

8.559 X 6.569

= 8559 X 6569
= 56224071
= 56.224071

Example #5

2.545 X 3.65

= 2545 X 365
= 928925
= 9.28925

Multiplying Decimals by Whole Numbers

Example #6

1.2 X 5

= 12 X 5
= 60
= 6.0
= 6

Example #7

65.6 X 10

= 656 X 10
= 6560
= 656.0
= 656

Example #8

25 X 9.999

= 25 X 9999
= 249975
= 249.975

Example #9

0.989 X 85

= 989 X 85
= 84065
= 84.065

Example #10

559.5 X 5

= 559 X 5
= 27975
= 2797.5

So you see how easy it is to multiply decimals manually, instead of using a calculator. Speaking of a calculator, in my opinion it should not be used until the need arises for scientific calculations, which I am sure are not included in schools. The more you avoid using this device, and learn to do mathematical problems manually, the better you would become with numbers. Always remember, the perfect tool to master mathematics is practice. Once you know how to use this tool, the magic of numbers will be on your fingertips.