*Rewrite the problems vertically in your notebook to find the product. Remove the decimal point and multiply the numbers. Then don’t forget to scoop the decimal point back into the answer.

Question

0.5 x 15

Answer 1

To solve the problem \(0.5 \times 15\) vertically, we first remove the decimal point from \(0.5\), making it \(5\).

Then we can set it up like this:

   5
x 15
____

Now, we multiply:

1. Multiply \(5\) by \(5\):

   • \(5 \times 5 = 25\)

2. Multiply \(5\) by \(1\) (remember that this is actually \(10\)):

   • \(5 \times 1 = 5\) (but this is actually \(50\) because it is in the tens place)

Now we combine these:

   25  (from 5 x 5)
+ 50  (from 5 x 1, shifted one place to the left)
______
   75

Now we need to place the decimal point back into the answer. Since we removed one decimal place from \(0.5\), we place the decimal point in the product \(75\) to get \(7.5\).

So, \(0.5 \times 15 = 7.5\).