Dividing Decimals

 

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The division of decimals, like multiplying decimals, can be tricky. Again, less can be more and more less with dividing decimals. The other important precaution is that the placement of the decimal point's rules are different in different cases.

Here is a simple example:

	.4/	Four Tenths divided by
	2	Two or into two groups of
	.2	Two tenths

In this case, the quotient or answer has the same number of decimal places as the dividend or the number that is being divided up.

 

	.4/	Four tenths or forty hundredths divided by
	.02	Two hundredths or into groups of two hundredths equals
	20	Twenty groups of two hundredths.

 

In the example above, the four tenths is divided into groups of two hundredths. There are twenty groups of two hundredths in four tenths, which can also be called forty hundredths. In order to do this as a straight division problem, one needs to move the decimal point in the divisor to the right two places and then to the same to the dividend before dividing. Then the answer comes out correctly.

Dividing Decimals Videos

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Place Value	Adding Decimals	Subtracting Decimals	Multiplying Decimals
Dividing Decimals	Decimals & Money	Metric Measurement	Percents