Question

How is adding and subtracting decimals similar to adding and subtracting whole numbers

Answer 1

It is similar because with adding and subtracting with whole numbers because you could literally just add a decimal to the whole number. For instance if I'm adding 2 plus 3 it could also be expressed as 2.0 plus 3.0 which would have given you the same answer but just with a .0 at the end of it.

Answer 2

Don't forget, for a whole number like the first term, the decimal point lies just to the right of the ones column. ... To subtract these numbers, first arrange the terms vertically, aligning the decimal points in each term. You can add zeroes to the right of the decimal point, to make it easier to align the columns