I. Origin of decimals

Decimal is a representation in mathematics, which is used to represent numerical values between integers. Its origin can be traced back to ancient Egypt and Babylonian civilization. In Egypt, people use the concept of score to measure and trade, and use the form of score to express the quantity of goods. In Babylon, people used sexagesimal's counting system to express numerical values as fractions, and a specific symbol was used to express decimal points.

The concept and representation of decimals in real sense was put forward by Archimedes, an ancient Greek mathematician. Archimedes used the concept of infinite circulating decimal and applied it to the calculation of measuring pi, and his work played an important role in promoting the development of decimal.

Second, the development of decimal places

1. Representation of decimals

With the passage of time, people constantly improve and perfect the decimal representation. Initially, decimals were expressed in the form of fractions and so on. Later, people introduced the concept of decimal point, and expressed decimals as a combination of integer parts and decimal parts. In decimal system, the number after the decimal point indicates the precision of the decimal point.

2. Decimal operation rules

The arithmetic of decimals is one of the important contents in mathematics. When adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals, attention should be paid to the alignment of decimal points and the operation of carry borrowing. For example, decimal addition needs to align decimal points, add them bit by bit, and carry them as needed. Similarly, for the multiplication and division of decimals, it is also necessary to carry out the inverse operation of decimals and the corresponding carry borrowing operation.

3. Application fields of decimals

Decimals are widely used in real life. It is widely used in finance, commerce, science and other fields. In the financial field, decimals are used for currency calculation and interest rate calculation. In business, decimals are used to calculate the price and sales of goods. In science, decimals are used to measure and calculate experimental data.

4. Further development of decimals

With the progress of science and technology and the development of mathematical theory, the application and research of decimals are also deepening. For example, people have studied the properties of irrational numbers and infinite cyclic decimals, put forward the concept of irrational numbers and developed the expression method of infinite decimals. In addition, people have also studied approximate calculation methods of decimals, such as rounding and rounding, in order to improve the calculation accuracy.