Decimal

Have you ever shared a yummy cookie. Sometimes you get a whole one, but sometimes you get just a piece. It's still so tasty. What about a big, warm pizza. You get a slice, not the whole pie. I help you count all those little bits and pieces. I help count the parts that aren't quite whole things. I am the magic that lives in between the big numbers, like one and two. I help show the small parts in between.

Hello. My name is Decimal, and I have a very important helper. It’s a little dot. It looks like a tiny speck. We call it a decimal point. When you see my little dot after a number, it means we’re about to count the small parts. It’s a signal for tiny pieces. Long, long ago, people needed a way to measure things very carefully. They wanted to count things that were smaller than one. A smart man named Simon Stevin helped tell everyone about me. That was way back in the 1500s. He showed them how useful my little dot could be for counting bits of money or measuring tiny bits of wood to build things. He made counting little things so much easier.

Today, you can see me everywhere. I am all around you. I'm on the price tag at the toy store, telling you how many dollars and how many cents something costs. I'm in your kitchen when you measure flour to bake yummy cookies. My dot helps a lot. I help make sure everything is counted just right. This way, everyone gets their fair share. I love helping you see all the small parts that make our big world so interesting and fun.