Divide by decimals
When we divide a number by a decimal that's less than one, our number will get bigger.
Change the Divisor to a Whole Number
You've already learnt how to divide decimal numbers by whole numbers so this can be a really useful strategy.
Let's look at an example to explain how this strategy works.
Examples
Question 1
Evaluate: $5.6\div0.8$5.6÷0.8
Think: We can change $0.8$0.8 to a whole number ($8$8) by multiplying in by $10$10. Remember we need to multiply both numbers in our equation by the same value to keep our equation balanced. We could now write our equation as $56\div8$56÷8, which is $7$7.
Do: $5.6\div0.8=7$5.6÷0.8=7
Make sense? Let's do another example to make sure.
question 2
Evaluate: $5.23\div0.4$5.23÷0.4
Think: We can change $0.4$0.4 to a whole number ($4$4) by multiplying it by $10$10. So we need to multiply both numbers in our equation by $10$10. Our equation becomes $52.3\div4$52.3÷4, which would be $13.075$13.075.
Do: $5.23\div0.4=13.075$5.23÷0.4=13.075
QUESTION 3
Evaluate $43\div8$43÷8.
QUESTION 4
Evaluate $\frac{3.44}{8}$3.448.
QUESTION 5
Evaluate $251.439\div3$251.439÷3
QUESTION 6
Evaluate $\frac{0.247}{0.019}$0.2470.019