Play with the Idea

Try changing the values here ... sometimes there will be a remainder:

But Sometimes It Does Not Work Perfectly!

Sometimes you cannot divide things up evenly ... there may be something left over.

Example: There are 7 cookies, and 2 people want to share them equally.

But 7 cookies cannot be divided exactly into 2 groups,
each person gets 3 cookies,
but there will be 1 left over:

We call that the Remainder. 



We say:

"7 divided by 2 equals 3 with a remainder of 1"

And we write:

7 ÷ 2 = 3 R 1

 

As a Fraction

It is also possible to cut the remaining cookie in half, and then each person would have 3 ½ cookies, so:

7 ÷ 2 = 3 R 1 = 3 ½

"7 divided by 2 equals 3 remander 1 equals 3 and a half"

Opposite of Multiplying

Division is the opposite of multiplying. If you know a multiplication fact you can find a division fact:

Example: 3 × 5 = 15, so 15 / 5 = 3.

Also 15 / 3 = 5.

Why? Well it is easy to understand if you think of the numbers in rows and columns like in this illustration:

Multiplication... ...Division 3 groups of 5 make 15... so 15 divided by 3 is 5 and also: 5 groups of 3 make 15... so 15 divided by 5 is 3.

So there are four related facts:

• 3 × 5 = 15
• 5 × 3 = 15
• 15 / 3 = 5
• 15 / 5 = 3

Knowing your Multiplication Tables can help you with division!

Example: What is 56 ÷ 7 ?

Searching around the multiplication table you find that 56 is 7 × 8, so 56 divided by 7 must be 8. Answer: 56 ÷ 7 = 8.