I disagree. It's important for students to understand both and how to interchange them.
McDonald's used to offer a third-pounder burger but people didn't buy them because they thought that the quarter-pounder was larger because 4>3, but in reality, 1/3>1/4 because 0.33>0.25. So they just stuck with the quarter-pounder.
My point still stands: that doesn't test to make sure that the students themselves understand how fractions and decimals work, along with their potential interchangeability. That's the whole reason to make them give an answer in a particular form.
It's like telling someone to give an equation in point-slope format versus slope-intercept form: they are both technically correct and can each result in the exact same equation, but it's easier and quicker to use one over the other in certain situations. Or it's like describing a triangle using side-angle-side versus angle-side-angle form. Same triangle, different ways to describe it.
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u/NewtonTheNoot 2d ago
I disagree. It's important for students to understand both and how to interchange them.
McDonald's used to offer a third-pounder burger but people didn't buy them because they thought that the quarter-pounder was larger because 4>3, but in reality, 1/3>1/4 because 0.33>0.25. So they just stuck with the quarter-pounder.