Division means splitting/breaking something into many equal pieces. The number that divides is called dividend. The number by which you are dividing is called divisor. The answer to the division problem is called quotient. Symbols for division are
Example: If five friends have 15 chocolates, how can they divide them equally?
15 divided by 5 is 3. They get 3 each.
mathematically we write it as
Here we can say 3 groups of 5 make 15.
Division is the opposite of multiplication. If we know the multiplication facts then division facts can be found out.
For example, 3 × 5 = 15 or 5 × 3 = 15 therefore 15 ÷ 3 = 5 and 15 ÷ 5 = 3
Let us take another example, as 5 × 4 = 20 (5 groups of 4 make 20), therefore, 20 ÷ 5 = 4 similarly 4 × 5 = 20 (4 groups of 5 make 20), therefore, 20 ÷ 4 = 5
But sometimes division cannot divide things completely, there may be some leftovers.
In the example above, if there were four friends, how can they divide them equally?
15 ÷ 4 = 3 with remainder 3 or we can write it as 3 R 3
Therefore, Dividend = Divisor × Quotient + Remainder
Let's try out a few examples:
Example 1: 49 cookies are shared equally among 7 children. How many cookies does each child get?
Solution: 49 cookies to be equally divided among 7 children, therefore, 49 ∕ 7 = 7
Answer - Each child will get 7 cookies.
Example 2: 24 apples are shared equally among five people. How many whole apples do they get each?
Solution: 24 apples to be equally divided among 5 people, therefore, 24 ÷ 5 = 4 and 4 apples as leftover.
Answer - Each will get 4 whole apples.
