| 5.346 |
| .937 |
| ——– |
| 4.409 |
Subtract .753 from 18. (Note that the point or period is placed to the left of “753” indicating decimals, but in connection with the number “18,” a dot is placed to the right as a mark of punctuation merely, thus showing that “18” is a whole number.)
Now from the whole number “18,” which is the minuend because it is the number to be subtracted from, we are to subtract .753, and it is done in this way:
| Minuend | 18.000 |
| Subtrahend | .753 |
| ——— | |
| 17.247 |
The three ciphers are added to the minuend to correspond to the decimal places in the subtrahend. It is not necessary to put the ciphers down, but beginners are apt to get confused if there is nothing there to correspond to the decimals below. Annex as many ciphers to the minuend as there are decimals in the subtrahend, and place in the remainder a decimal point under those of the numbers subtracted.
Multiplication of decimals differs somewhat from the previous operations mentioned for the reason that we do not necessarily place the decimal points directly under each other. The right-hand figure of the multiplier usually goes under the right-hand figure of the multiplicand and the problem is then worked out as in multiplying whole numbers. When the product is obtained we point off as many decimal places in it as there are in both the multiplier and the multiplicand.
Let us take as an example: Multiply 2.648 by 2.35
| Multiplicand | 2.648 |
| Multiplier | 2.35 |
| ———– | |
| 13240 | |
| 7944 | |
| 5296 | |
| ———– | |
| Product | 6.22280 |