NCERT Solutions Ganita Prakash (Part 1) Chapter 3 In-text Questions — Decimal Place Value

Book page 59 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Can we not split a unit into 4 equal parts, 5 equal parts, 8 equal parts, or any other number of equal parts instead?

Answer

Yes, we can. Nothing in mathematics stops us.

Split a unit into 4 → each part is ¹⁄₄ (a quarter)
Split each quarter into 4 again → each part is ¹⁄₁₆
16 such parts make 1 unit

Why it happens: the same length can be described with any sized part. A carpenter's tape in inches is split into halves, quarters, eighths and sixteenths, and it measures perfectly well. What changes is only the name of the reading.

Did you know? The old Indian rupee was once divided into 16 annas, and an anna into 4 paise — a 16-part and 4-part system, not a 10-part one.

Q2.

Then why split a unit into 10 parts every time?

Answer

Because our number-writing system is already built on 10.

10 ones = 1 ten
10 tens = 1 hundred
10 hundreds = 1 thousand
Each place is 10 times the place to its right

Why it happens: if we split the unit into 10, the new parts continue the same pattern to the right of the units place — 10 tenths make a unit, 10 hundredths make a tenth. So the same digits, the same carrying and borrowing, and the same comparison rules keep working. If we split into 4 or 16 instead, we would need a whole new set of rules and symbols.

Tip: this is why the system is called the decimal system — from Latin decem, ten, a cousin of Sanskrit daśha.

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