Explain why rational number is either a terminating or repeating decimal?

A rational number is a real number such as 5 or .25. An irrational number is a non realistic number such as pi

A number is rational if it can be written in form a/b where a and b are integers and b≠0

a terminating decimal can be written as a/b like this
3.14=314/100

all repeating decimals can be written as a fraction. it just might take work to find which fraction
example: 0.33333333333333=1/3

P(chicago, illinois)