How Do You Solve Divisions the Easy Way
Supposedly, you passed adding, subtracting and barely multiplying, right? But now you have this China Wall called Division. You are already seven years old and your mom told you to come here to check with Mr. Cross, because another mom's friend told her to try this kind of easier way of seeing math...First rule: turn off that music and put away that cell.
And you are here, reading me all mad, because your mom forced you to. And she is reading too. "How did he know?" Well is common sense. Been there, done that.
Lets put things in order, so you can grab this baby's wet diaper... no wonder they call it quotient, feels heavy and rounded.
DEFINITIONS
IN THE EXAMPLE: 8 / 4 = 2
8 IS CALLED THE DIVIDEND
4 IS CALLED THE DIVISOR
2 IS CALLED THE QUOTIENT
FIRST MNEMONIC MR BOUNCER HELP....THINK THAT YOU HAVE 8 ICE CREAMS AND
YOU ARE 4 KIDS...WE NEED AN ANSWER...
HOW MANY ICE CREAMS WILL GET EACH
FRIEND....NOW YOU WILL LEARN NO MATTER WHAT
HOW TO DIVIDE 8 BETWEEN YOURSELVES:
4 KIDS...YEAH!
.MENTALLY YOU WILL GET AN ANSWER
NO MATTER WHAT..AND YOU
DON'T WANT TO GET CHEATED 8/4=?? OF COURSE 2!
OR YOU WANT TO TO GET JUST
A MISERABLE POPSICLE? NO WAY!!
In our kind of easy example, we have to find the quotient for 356/5...by now you now that the divisor is number 5 and the dividend is the long number, in this case 356. We have to find the quotient plus a possible Reminder R. Let's keep working with some colors and graphical steps
The first step is try to work it out between the divisor and the dividend. we start with the first two digits on the dividend... common sense already told us that 3 ( from the dividend) by itself cannot be divided by 5. So, the numbers in red are suggesting that we divided 35 by divisor 5 and got our first quotient, which is number 7. Most of the subtractions are done under the dividend who is being broken apart by divisor 5, who is already furious in doing this division for free.
The remainder of 35 minus 35 (5X7) is zero...now we bring down number six as shown by the vertical arrow. All we have to do is a simple division between 6 and 5. Of course, the only choice is number 1( blue colors steps) . We subtract 6 minus 5 and we have number 1, which is our final remainder for the quotient 71. I chose this medium size division in order to build your confidence and lay out a good foundation for bigger numbers like 5695/13... which takes a little more of the steps we just did.
So, doing a usual recap.
356 DIVIDED BY NUMBER 5 IS 71 WITH A REMAINDER OF 1.
Remember to check the answer and do the opposite operation which includes adding and multiplying
5x71+1=?
355+1=356
Time to get me a popsicle for free!