Breaking it Down: Understanding Division with Numbers and Decimals
Tips for dividing numbers and using the decimal
Division is like the opposite of multiplication. When you multiply, you find the total of groups of the same number. For example, 4 times 5 is 20. When you divide, you find out how many groups of a number fit into another number. So, if you know how to multiply, you can figure out how to divide. For instance, if you want to know what 28 divided by 4 is, you can ask yourself, "4 times what number is 28?" The answer is 7, because 4 x 7 = 28. Another example is 15 divided by 5. You can ask yourself, "5 times what number is 15?" The answer is 3, because 5 + 5 + 5 = 15. So, 15 divided by 5 is 3.
Let's do some more math problems together. First, let's figure out what happens when we divide 12 by 4. Another way to think about it is, what number do we need to multiply by 4 to get 12? We can also ask, how many times do we need to add 4 to itself to get to 12? If we start with 4 and keep adding 4, we get 8, and then if we add 4 again, we get 12. So we added 4 three times to get to 12. That means 4 times 3 equals 12, and 12 divided by 4 equals 3.
Now, let's try another problem. What happens when we divide 36 by 9? We can also ask, what number do we need to multiply by 9 to get 36? Or, how many times do we need to add 9 to itself to get to 36? If we start with 9 and keep adding 9, we get 18, then 27, and finally 36. So we added 9 four times to get to 36. That means 9 times 4 equals 36, and 36 divided by 9 equals 4.
Sometimes we need to divide a big number by a smaller number, like 105 divided by 3. But adding 3 over and over again until we get to 105 would take forever! That's where long division comes in. We start by putting the smaller number, 3, on the outside and the bigger number, 105, on the inside. We ask ourselves, how many times does 3 go into 10? It goes in 3 times. Then we subtract 9 from 10 and bring down the 5. We ask ourselves again, how many times does 3 go into 15? It goes in 5 times. We multiply 3 by 5 to get 15 and there's no remainder left. So 105 divided by 3 is 35. Let's try another example: 184 divided by 4. We start by dividing 4 into 18, which goes in 4 times. We multiply 4 by 4 to get 16 and subtract it from 18 to get 2. Then we bring down the 4 and divide 4 into 24, which goes in 6 times. We multiply 4 by 6 to get 24 and there's no remainder left. So 184 divided by 4 is 46.
Decimal division might seem tricky at first, but it's not too bad. If you're dividing a whole number by a decimal, it's a little different than regular division. But if you're dividing a decimal by a whole number, it's just like regular long division. The decimal point doesn't change anything! Just remember to bring the decimal point up into your answer when you're done. For example, if you're dividing 12.64 by 4, you would do the division like normal and get 3.16. Then, you just bring the decimal point straight up into your answer.
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