Changes Come to Fractionville

Since 4/6 was once again a target of Sheriff 436, he had to lay low for a while until things calmed down a bit. He did go out for walks once in while in another one his costumes. Remember? Not wanting to have anyone pay to much attention to him he made sure that he obeyed all the rules especially when it came to paying respect to his elders (larger fractions). But one day a strange event occurred. A strange looking creature approached him. It looked like 4 our hair stylist, but it was different. It had a thing in front of its foot. It was horrible said 4/6ths under his breath. But what should he do? Should he get out of its way? Or will it yield to me? What shall I do? what shall I do? What he did was: feint! So the creature walked up to 4/6ths, leaned over and said Are you OK? 4/6ths nodded and said I think so. Relieved, the creature continued. I didn't mean to startle you, but I'm on a journey to find long lost relatives. I heard some of them might be here in Fractionville. But that's not possible. We've never seen anything like you before. What is your name asked 4/6ths? I'm called Four Tenths. I live in the woods on the other side of the mountains. It's been a long trip. Four Tenths? Why we have someone here in Fractionville that has that name, but looks very different from you. I feel much better now and I could go find our 4/10ths. Actually he goes by the name 2/5ths as well. Other fractions noticed the strange creature and came over to talk to him. "What is that at the foot of your shoe? Why it's a point. Sometimes I'm called point four, but my real name is four tenths. Meanwhile 4/6 arrives at the hair salon and asks 4/10ths to come see the amazing looking creature. Bring your ID said 4/6ths otherwise Four Tenths may not believe who who you are. "That's amazing" said .4. My ID card is identical to yours! We must be related. And so it went. .4 and 4/10ths bonded. .4 even met 2/5ths who was another family member. I wonder said 4/6 if I am a relative in the town where you live, .4. You do, but he is much stranger than I am. You can't put his entire name on an ID card. It's .6666 and it goes on forever. So what do they put on his ID card? Point dash 6. It looks like this: That's really weird. I hope to understand that some day. Well, let me give you one clue. First of all I live in a town called Decimalburg. When it was first founded there were no decimal numbers like me. There were only fractions. That's why I suspected that there had to still be inhabitants that call themselves fractions. And sure enough I have found you! And you're family meaning we should live on the same number line as you. And so it passed over time. Decimal numbers joined fractions on their number lines. Rumors spread quickly that all fractions could change into their decimal equivalent.  But how do I do that? asked 3/4. You have to think of yourself as a fraction with 10 or 100 in your denominator. I can't do 10 easily, but I can clone myself as fraction with 100 as my bottom number. And my cloning number is 25 because 4 x 25 = 100. So I am the same as 75/100 and I can adopt my .75 look. .4 interjects "That's the same as 7/10ths + 5/100ths or just more simply 75/100ths. That is very cool said 3/4rds. I'm going to share that with all my friends. Great idea said .4. I heard through the rumor mill that there is a decimal darts game somewhere. Do you know where it is? No I don't said 3/4. But now that we know the citizens of Decimalburg are all related to us then if we build it (decimal darts) they (decimal numbers) will come.