Even though you may be able to divide, dividing decimals can seem much more challenging. 

While it can look daunting at first, with a few little tricks and tips, it's no more difficult than doing normal division.

 

Multiplying up...

Let's say you have the sum 24 ÷ 0.5

We don't want to deal with the decimal, so let's just get rid of it!

The trick here is to keep multiplying both the numbers by 10 until the second number isn't a decimal anymore.

Going back to our sum, if we multiply both numbers by 10, we get:

 

24 ÷ 0.5 = 240 ÷ 5    

 

These sums are identical!

(Try putting them into a calculator if you don't believe me!)

Now we can just calculate the sum as normal.

 

 

Let's try this with some examples now...

 

e.g. 24 ÷ 0.2

 

Multiply each number by 10 to reach:

240 ÷ 2

Then calculate the sum as normal:

24 ÷ 0.2 = 120

It's as simple as that!

 

 

e.g. 375 ÷ 0.05

 

Multiply each number by 10 to reach:

3750 ÷ 0.5

As the second number is still a decimal, we need to multiply by 10 again to get:

37500 ÷ 5

Now we can calculate as normal!

375 ÷ 0.05 = 7500

 

 

In this activity, you will practise dividing whole numbers and decimals by each other, removing the decimal places by multiplying both numbers by multiples of 10.