Subtracting decimals is very similar to subtracting numbers that are not decimals. The key to subtracting two decimal numbers is to make sure that you line up the decimal point when writing down the problem.
When you line up the decimal point, you ensure that the place values match in both the first and second operand. When lining up the decimal point you may experience spaces at the beginning or end of a number. We can think of these spaces as zeros as shown below:
Once we have our decimal problem set up we can subtract as normal by finding the difference for each column (place value) and borrow from the column to the left as needed:
Once again the key to subtracting two decimal numbers is to ensure that the decimal points are lined up. If you have the situation where you are subtracting a decimal from an integer or an integer from a decimal, remember you can add a decimal point and as many zeros as need after that decimal point to the integer.
