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Divide numbers with decimals by powers of 10

Lesson

Remember how dividing by 10 meant we reduced our number by a factor of $10$10?  So, if we solve $444\div10$444÷​10, our answer would be $44.4$44.4.   

The power

We can also solve $444$444 divided by $100$100 , and our answer is $4.44$4.44.  So, the power of ten we are dividing by tells us how many decimal places our answer will have.  $100$100 is $10^2$102, so our answer has $2$2 decimal places.  Let's work through this in our video to see how it works.

Larger powers

In our second video, we look at dividing by $10^6$106 and also see how we can work out a system for dividing by powers of $10$10. It might seem as if our decimal point is moving, but our digits are actually moving! 

Remember!

When we divide a number by powers of ten, our digits move to the right one place for each power of ten.

Worked examples

Question 1

What number is $10^3$103?

Question 2

Evaluate $41.5\div10$41.5÷​10.

Question 3

What is $30\div10^4$30÷​104? Write your answer in decimal form.

 

Outcomes

NA5-3

Understand operations on fractions, decimals, percentages, and integers

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