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# 4.18: Division of Decimals by Decimals

Difficulty Level: At Grade Created by: CK-12
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Practice Division of Decimals by Decimals

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Do you enjoy projects?

Most students love to participate in hands-on projects, and the students in Mrs. Andersen’s class aren’t any exception. At the science museum there is a whole section that is a Discovery Center. In the Discovery Center, students can use real objects to work on experiments. Mrs. Andersen has asked her students to bring a notebook and a pencil into the Discovery Center. The students need to keep track of the experiments that they work on. They will each have an opportunity to share their discoveries when they return to the classroom. When Miles enters the Discovery Center he is immediately overwhelmed with all of the options. After looking around, he finally decides to work on an experiment that involves an hour glass. To complete the experiment, Miles needs to figure out how long it takes 1.25 pounds of sand to go through the hour glass. There is bucket of sand that is 6.25 pounds in front of Miles. He has a scale and another bucket to hold the sand he needs for his experiment. Miles needs to complete the experiment as many times as he can with the 6.25 pound bucket of sand. Miles picks up the scoop and begins to sort out the sand. Remember he needs 1.25 pounds of sand each time he does the experiment.

If Miles needs 1.25 pounds of sand, how many times can he complete the experiment if he has a 6.25 pound bucket?

Pretend you are Miles. If you were completing this experiment, how many times could you do it given the amount of sand you have been given and the amount of sand that you need?

In this Concept, you will learn how to work through this experiment to find the solution.

### Guidance

Remember Miles? In the experiment, he is working on dividing up sand. If you were going to complete this problem yourself, you would need to know how to divide decimals by decimals.

How can we divide a decimal by a decimal?

To divide a decimal by a decimal, we have to rewrite the divisor. Remember that the divisor is the number that is outside of the division box. The dividend is the number that is inside the division box.

\begin{align*}2.6 \overline{)10.4 \;}\end{align*}

In this problem, 2.6 is our divisor and 10.4 is our dividend. We have a decimal being divided into a decimal. Whew! This seems pretty complicated. We can make our work simpler by rewriting the divisor as a whole number.

How can we do this?

Think back to the work we did in the last section when we multiplied by a power of ten. When we multiply a decimal by a power of ten we move the decimal point one place to the right.

We can do the same thing with our divisor. We can multiply 2.6 times 10 and make it a whole number. It will be a lot easier to divide by a whole number.

2.6 \begin{align*}\times\end{align*} 10 \begin{align*}=\end{align*} 26

Because we multiplied the divisor by 10, we also need to multiply the dividend by 10. This is the only way that it works to rewrite a divisor.

10.4 \begin{align*}\times\end{align*} 10 \begin{align*}=\end{align*} 104

Now we have a new problem to work with.

\begin{align*}& \overset{ \qquad 4}{26\overline{ ) 104 \;}}\end{align*}

What about if we have two decimal places in the divisor?

\begin{align*}.45 \overline{)1.35 \;}\end{align*}

Now, we want to make our divisor .45 into a whole number by multiplying it by a power of ten. We can multiply it by 100 to make it a whole number. Then we can do the same thing to the dividend.

Here is our new problem and quotient.

\begin{align*}& \overset{ \qquad 3}{45\overline{ ) 135 \;}}\end{align*}

Now it is time for you to practice a few. Rewrite each divisor and dividend by multiplying them by a power of ten. Then find the quotient.

#### Example A

\begin{align*}1.2 \overline{)4.8 \;}\end{align*}

Solution: 4

#### Example B

\begin{align*}5.67 \overline{)11.34 \;}\end{align*}

Solution: 2

#### Example C

\begin{align*}6.98 \overline{)13.96 \;}\end{align*}

Solution: 2

Congratulations you have finished the Concept! Now you are ready for the experiment. Here is the original problem once again.

Most students love to participate in hands-on projects, and the students in Mrs. Andersen’s class aren’t any exception. At the science museum there is a whole section that is a Discovery Center. In the Discovery Center, students can use real objects to work on experiments. Mrs. Andersen has asked her students to bring a notebook and a pencil into the Discovery Center. The students need to keep track of the experiments that they work on. They will each have an opportunity to share their discoveries when they return to the classroom. When Miles enters the Discovery Center he is immediately overwhelmed with all of the options. After looking around, he finally decides to work on an experiment that involves an hour glass. To complete the experiment, Miles needs to figure out how long it takes 1.25 pounds of sand to go through the hour glass. There is bucket of sand that is 6.25 pounds in front of Miles. He has a scale and another bucket to put the sand he needs for his experiment.

Miles needs to complete the experiment as many times as he can with the 6.25 pound bucket of sand. Miles picks up the scoop and begins to sort out the sand. Remember he needs 1.25 pounds of sand each time he does the experiment.

If Miles needs 1.25 pounds of sand, how many times can he complete the experiment if he has a 6.25 pound bucket?

Write a division problem.

\begin{align*}1.25 \overline{)6.25 \;}\end{align*}

You can start by multiplying the divisor by a power of ten to rewrite it as a whole number. Do this to the dividend too. Since there are two places in the divisor, we can multiply it by 100 to make it a power of ten.

\begin{align*}125 \overline{)625 \;}\end{align*}

Next, we divide. Our answer will tell us how many times Miles can complete the hourglass experiment.

\begin{align*}& \overset{ \qquad \ \ 5}{125 \overline{ ) {625 \;}}}\\ & \quad \underline{-625}\\ & \qquad \ \ 0\end{align*}

Miles can complete the experiment 5 times using 1.25 pounds of sand from his 6.25 pound bucket.

### Vocabulary

Here are the vocabulary words in this Concept.

Divisor
the number doing the dividing, it is found outside of the division box.
Dividend
the number being divided. It is found inside the division box.
Quotient
the answer in a division problem

### Guided Practice

Here is one for you to try on your own.

\begin{align*}3.45 \overline{)7.245 \;}\end{align*}

The first thing to do is to make 3.45 a whole number. We can do this by moving the decimal point two places to the right. If we do this in the divisor, we also have to do this in the dividend.

Next, we divide.

The answer is \begin{align*}2.1\end{align*}.

### Video Review

Here are videos for review.

### Practice

Directions: Divide the following decimals.

1. \begin{align*}1.2 \overline{)4.08 \;}\end{align*}

2. \begin{align*}3.5 \overline{)12.6 \;}\end{align*}

3. \begin{align*}14.5 \overline{)29 \;}\end{align*}

4. \begin{align*}5.3 \overline{)16.96 \;}\end{align*}

5. \begin{align*}6.7 \overline{)15.47 \;}\end{align*}

6. \begin{align*}8.9 \overline{)11.57 \;}\end{align*}

7. \begin{align*}9.6 \overline{)11.52 \;}\end{align*}

8. \begin{align*}10.3 \overline{)23.69 \;}\end{align*}

9. \begin{align*}11.6 \overline{)73.08 \;}\end{align*}

10. \begin{align*}14.5 \overline{)33.35 \;}\end{align*}

11. \begin{align*}6.3 \overline{)93.24 \;}\end{align*}

12. \begin{align*}3.6 \overline{)68.04 \;}\end{align*}

13. \begin{align*}2.1 \overline{)165.69 \;}\end{align*}

14. \begin{align*}6.3 \overline{)518.49 \;}\end{align*}

15. \begin{align*}2.6 \overline{)193.7 \;}\end{align*}

### Notes/Highlights Having trouble? Report an issue.

Color Highlighted Text Notes

### Vocabulary Language: English

Dividend

In a division problem, the dividend is the number or expression that is being divided.

divisor

In a division problem, the divisor is the number or expression that is being divided into the dividend. For example: In the expression $152 \div 6$, 6 is the divisor and 152 is the dividend.

Quotient

The quotient is the result after two amounts have been divided.

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