How many decimal places do you think are in the product of 1.2, 1.43, and 0.3? What strategy did you use to make your prediction? Multiply to check your prediction.

Understand the Problem
The question is asking how many decimal places will be present in the product of the numbers 1.2, 1.43, and 0.3. It also asks for the strategy used to make that prediction and to verify the prediction by performing the multiplication.
Answer
The product has $4$ decimal places.
Answer for screen readers
The product has 4 decimal places.
Steps to Solve
- Counting Decimal Places in Each Number
First, we identify the number of decimal places in each of the numbers:
- For $1.2$, there is 1 decimal place.
- For $1.43$, there are 2 decimal places.
- For $0.3$, there is 1 decimal place.
- Total Decimal Places Prediction
To find the total number of decimal places in the product, we add the decimal places from each number: $$ 1 + 2 + 1 = 4 $$
Thus, we predict the product will have 4 decimal places.
- Performing the Multiplication
Now let's multiply the three numbers step by step to verify: First, multiply $1.2$ and $1.43$: $$ 1.2 \times 1.43 = 1.716 $$
Next, multiply the result by $0.3$: $$ 1.716 \times 0.3 = 0.5148 $$
- Count Decimal Places in the Product
Now, we check the product $0.5148$:
- It has 4 decimal places.
The product has 4 decimal places.
More Information
When multiplying decimal numbers, you can determine the total decimal places by adding the decimal places from each factor. This helps in making predictions for the result before doing the calculation.
Tips
- Forgetting to count the decimal places correctly in each number.
- Failing to add the decimal places properly before predicting the total.
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