Fun Science Idea

What divided by what -- Math problems involving division can be confusing. Do I really divide to find the answer? What two numbers do I use? And do I divide a by b or is it b by a? The following paragraphs offers an explanation that just might answer those questions for you the next time they arise. You may find the explanation confusing and tiring. But if you study it until you understand it, most division problems will be a lot easier.

Division involves three numbers. Two of those will be given(known). The third number is the result or answer that is produced when you do the math. If you understand what the three numbers are then you will know how to solve the problem.

One of the numbers is how many items in all. It could be for example, how many students are in your school.

One of the three numbers is how many groups of items are involved. It could be how many classrooms are in your school because each classroom could be thought of as a group of students.

The third number is how many in each group. An example would be how many students in an average size classroom.

As mentioned before, two of these three numbers will be given in a division problem. The 'how many in all' number will be one of the two given numbers. It represents the total number of items when all the groups of items are put together. So as you might expect it is the number broken up or divided when the math is done. It is the number on top in a/b. It is the a in a divided by b.

The other given or known number then has to be the bottom number of a/b. It is the b in a divided by b.

So if a math problem tells you how many items there are in all and you need to find either the number of groups or the number of items in each group, you will know what to divide by what.

A division problem will be one of these two forms:

How many in all             how many in each group	= how many groups
how many in all               how many groups	= how many in each group

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