DiViSioN

Division is splitting into equal parts or groups.

It is the result of "fair sharing".

Example: there are 12 chocolates, and 3 friends want to share them, how do they divide the chocolates?

12 Chocolates		12 Chocolates Divided by 3

Answer: 12 divided by 3 is 4: they get 4 each.

Symbols

÷ /	We use the ÷ symbol, or sometimes the / symbol to mean divide: 12 ÷ 3 = 4 12 / 3 = 4 I will use both symbols here so you get used to it.

Opposite of Multiplying

Division is the opposite of multiplying. If you know a multiplication fact you can find a division fact:

Example: 3 × 5 = 15, so 15 / 5 = 3.
Also 15 / 3 = 5.

Why? Well it is easy to understand if you think of the numbers in rows and columns like in this illustration:

Multiplication... ...Division 3 groups of 5 make 15... so 15 divided by 3 is 5     and also:       5 groups of 3 make 15... so 15 divided by 5 is 3.

So there are four related facts:

• 3 × 5 = 15
• 5 × 3 = 15
• 15 / 3 = 5
• 15 / 5 = 3

Knowing your Multiplication Tables can help you with division!

Example: What is 56 ÷ 7 ?

Searching around the multiplication table you find that 56 is 7 × 8, so 56 divided by 7 must be 8. Answer: 56 ÷ 7 = 8.

Names

There are special names for each number in a division:

dividend ÷ divisor = quotient

Example: in 12 ÷ 3 = 4:

• 12 is the dividend
• 3 is the divisor
• 4 is the quotient

But Sometimes It Does Not Work Perfectly!

Sometimes you cannot divide things up evenly ... there may be something left over.

Example: There are 7 cookies, and 2 people want to share them equally.

But 7 cookies cannot be divided exactly into 2 groups,
each person gets 3 cookies,
but there will be 1 left over:

We call that the Remainder.