We are going to compute 4.8 times 0.6. We'll learn how to multiply decimal numbers step by step. First, we multiply as whole numbers, then we place the decimal point correctly.
First, we remove the decimal points to convert our decimal numbers into whole numbers. This makes the multiplication easier. We'll put the decimal point back in the correct position later. So 4.8 becomes 48, and 0.6 becomes 6.
Now we need to count how many decimal places were in our original numbers. In 4.8, there is 1 decimal place. In 0.6, there is also 1 decimal place. So in total, we have 1 plus 1 equals 2 decimal places. This tells us where to place the decimal point in our final answer.
Now we multiply our whole numbers: 48 times 6. We'll use the standard multiplication algorithm. First, 8 times 6 equals 48. We write down 8 and carry 4. Then, 4 times 6 equals 24, plus the 4 we carried equals 28. So our result is 288.
We counted a total of 2 decimal places in our original numbers. So we need to place the decimal point 2 places from the right in our result. Starting from the right of 288, we count 1, 2 places. This gives us 2.88.
So our final answer is 4.8 times 0.6 equals 2.88. Let's review the steps we took: First, we converted the decimal numbers to whole numbers. Second, we multiplied those whole numbers. Third, we counted the total number of decimal places in the original numbers. Fourth, we placed the decimal point in our result. To verify, we can estimate: 5 times 0.6 equals 3, and our answer 2.88 is very close to 3, so it's reasonable.