Understand dividing decimals using number lines and conversion to whole number division!
Scenario: You have 2.4 liters of orange juice that you want to distribute equally among 8 cups. How much juice should go in each cup?
To divide 2.4 by 8, we need to find how much each of the 8 equal parts contains. We can visualize this on a number line:
Number line from 0 to 2.4, divided into 8 equal parts
Each segment = 0.3 liters
2.4 ÷ 8 = 0.3 liters per cup
8 × 0.3 = 2.4 ✓
2.4 ÷ 8 = 0.3
Each cup gets 0.3 liters of juice
Answer: Each cup should contain 0.3 liters of orange juice!
Sometimes it's easier to convert decimal division to whole number division:
2.4 ÷ 8 = ?
Original problem
= 24 ÷ 80 (multiply both by 10)
Convert to whole numbers
= 24 ÷ 80 = 0.3
Divide and place decimal
Multiply by 10 to make 2.4 → 24 and 8 → 80
24 ÷ 80 = 0.3 (same as original answer)
Let's try a more complex example: 1.8 ÷ 0.6
1.8 ÷ 0.6 = ?
Original problem
= 18 ÷ 6 (multiply both by 10)
Convert to whole numbers
= 3
Simple division
When both numbers have the same number of decimal places, we can "move" the decimal point
0.6 × 3 = 1.8 ✓
You have 5.4 liters of apple juice to distribute equally among 6 friends. How much juice does each friend get?
5.4 ÷ 6 = 0.9 liters per friend
Answer: Each friend gets 0.9 liters of apple juice.
Calculate: 4.8 ÷ 0.4
4.8 ÷ 0.4 = 48 ÷ 4 = 12
Calculate: 0.48 ÷ 0.04
0.48 ÷ 0.04 = 48 ÷ 4 = 12
Always verify your division answer by multiplying:
If 2.4 ÷ 8 = 0.3, then 0.3 × 8 = 2.4 ✓
This checks out!
If 1.8 ÷ 0.6 = 3, then 0.6 × 3 = 1.8 ✓
This also checks out!
Estimate your answer to check if it's reasonable:
2.4 ÷ 8 ≈ 2 ÷ 8 = 0.25
Our answer 0.3 is close ✓
1.8 ÷ 0.6 ≈ 2 ÷ 0.5 = 4
Our answer 3 is close ✓