Question

Write the number of decimal places in 0.000879.

Answer 1

Hint: Count the number of digits after the decimal point with no trailing zeroes in the given number. That is equal to the number of decimal places in the given number.

Complete step-by-step answer:
The number of decimal places in any number is ascertained by the number of digits after the decimal point without any trailing zeroes. The number 0.000879 can be expressed as follows:
$0.000879\text{ = 879 x 1}{{\text{0}}^{-6}}\text{ }$
Thus, both by counting as well as noting the negative power of 10 in the number, we can say that there are 6 digits without any trailing zeros after the decimal point in the number 0.000879.
\[\therefore \]Number of decimal places in 0.000879 $=\text{ 6}$
Hence, there are 6 decimal places in 0.000879.

Note: The ‘trailing zeroes’ is an important concept in understanding the number of decimal places in any giving number. Suppose, instead of 0.000879, the number given was 0.00087900, then also we would say there are 6 decimal places in the number. The last two zeroes are the trailing zeroes in the number. So they would not be counted and hence the number of decimal places would not be 8.