Introduction to Solving Equations with Decimals

A female swimmer wearing googles and a yellow cap doing the freestyle stroke in one lane of a pool

To calculate the difference between two swimmers' race times, you'll need to write an equation with decimals.

Kim and Alyssa are on the same high school swim team, and they're always competing for the fastest time in the 50-meter freestyle event. In the last race, the difference between Kim's time and Alyssa's time was 1.36 seconds. If Alyssa swam the race in 36.79 seconds, what was Kim's time? To solve this problem, you'll need to translate the information given to an equation and then solve it. Read on to find out more about solving equations with decimals.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Determine whether a decimal is a solution of an equation
Solve equations with decimals
Translate to an equation and solve

readiness quiz

Before you get started, take this readiness quiz.

Evaluate [latex]x+\frac{2}{3}\text{when}x=-\frac{1}{4}[/latex].If you missed this problem, review [link].
Evaluate [latex]15-y[/latex] when [latex]y=-5[/latex].If you missed this problem, review [link].
Solve [latex]\frac{n}{-7}=42[/latex].If you missed this problem, review [link].

Licenses & Attributions

CC licensed content, Shared previously

Freestyle swimmer . Authored by: Mark Bonica. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23119666@N03/7447357796/. License: CC BY: Attribution.

CC licensed content, Specific attribution

Prealgebra. Provided by: OpenStax License: CC BY: Attribution. License terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected].

Study Guides > Prealgebra