How do I find the reciprocal of a decimal mixed number?

student asking...please



Hi,

If you are looking for a decimal number as the answer then you can find it by division. For example the reciprocal of 2.13 is

 1/2.13 = 0.4694 I rounded the answer to 4 significant figures so I should say the reciprocal in approximately 0.469.

If you are looking for a common fraction as the answer then you need to express the original mixed decimal as a common fraction. For 2.13 that means

2.13 = 2 13/100 = 213/100 and then the reciprocal is  100/213.

Cheers,
Penny
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