Reduce Decimal: Simplifying 0.5005 to Lowest Terms

The zero in $0.5005$ is significant because it's between two non-zero digits (the 5's). Removing it would change the value to $0.505$, which is completely different!

$0.5005$ equals 5005/10000, while $0.500$ equals 500/1000. The extra zero in 0.5005 makes it slightly larger than 0.500.

You can only remove trailing zeros at the very end. For example, $0.5000$ becomes $0.5$, but never remove zeros between other digits!

Yes! $0.5005$ cannot be simplified further because all its digits are significant. There are no unnecessary trailing zeros to remove.

• Leading zeros (like in 0.005) are not significant
• Zeros between non-zero digits (like in 0.5005) are significant
• Trailing zeros after a decimal may or may not be significant depending on context