Wednesday 6th January 2021

LC- To divide whole numbers.

Yesterday, we looked at dividing whole numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 by using our knowledge of decimals to help us. Today we are going to carry on with this but using different numbers. Obviously, if you divide a small number by a bigger number then it won't fit. So the answer will be a decimal.

Have a look at the following problem. How would you solve it?

How can we  divide the 3 kg of sweets between 8 bags. Is there a smaller unit of measure than kilograms? How many grams are in 1 kg? So how many would there be in 3 kg? 

That's right - there are a thousand g in a kg so in 3 kg there would be 3000 g.

You could divide 3000 by 8. 

My friend says you could easily divide 3 kg into 8 bags using a bar model diagram. What might that look like? How many pieces would we need to divide each kilogram (bar) into? How many eighths would go in each bag? If 3000 divided by 8 is 375, and 3 eighths would go in each bag, can we determine what 3 eighths is as a decimal?

Sounds tricky?  Let's learn

 So 3 divided by 8 is the same as saying 3/8 . The fraction line is the same as divide.

So 4 divided by 7 can be written 4/7.

Wow that bit is easy then!

Let's carry on.

Let's go back to how we did this before in our division lessons. If the answer has a remainder then we put a decimal point, then a zero and take our remainder over.

 Look how we would do 3 divided by 8 this way.