Question

Describe how you can tell that a fraction is reapeating and not terminating

Answer 1

First, reduce the fraction to lowest terms, e.g. 8/6 = 4/3.

Look at the denominator. Split it into its prime factors. If its prime factors only consist of 2's and 5's, then it will be terminating.

Examples:
16 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, so terminating
25 = 5 x 5, so terminating
2000 = 2 x 1000 = 2 x (2 x 5) x (2 x 5) x (2 x 5), so terminating
12 = 2 x 3, so repeating (has prime factor 3, which is not 2 or 5)
13 = 13, so repeating (has prime factor 13, which is not 2 or 5)  Hope this helps!!