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MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,713

Long Division - Introduction

I just wrote a (hopefully simple) Introduction to Long Division ... does it make sense? Any mistakes?

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

Jai Ganesh

Administrator

Registered: 2005-06-28

Posts: 48,413

Re: Long Division - Introduction

MathsIsFun,
The page is fine, the animations too are good.
I feel
A student who's familiar with decimals would certainly be aware of Long Division.
Hence, the Long Division first needs to be taught in cases where there is no remainder,
a division like 1331 divided by 11.
I think, the page could've then gone one step further with a division like 100 divided by 7, or better still, terminating decimals as quotient like 42 divided by 5.
(In the first case above, the explanation can end with 14 being the quotient and 2 being the remainder.
In the second case, after mentioning that 8 is the quotient and 2 is the remainder, the use of decimals to get the exact value of quotient can be explained, and how 8.4 is arrived at.).

I think so because there's a possibility a learner may wonder why the division has to end with two places after the decimals. Since the Monetary unit is used, this might make sense. But in reality, there's no reason why the division should end after getting the quotient to two places after the decimal.

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It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,713

Re: Long Division - Introduction

Good points, thanks.

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman