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Long division vs short division?

Short division is when you have: 5)45 = 9 easy enough. You put your answer at the top of the work so it will read )0.9. Short divison I learned in about grade 7 after having done long division for a couple of years. Short division is done in your head where long division is more manual but visible.

To do a larger problem like 36.6)45678.98 how do you do the calculations the really old fashioned way where you write the numbers down the left hand side of your work (where I've placed the asterisks in the example below) versus the top left to right?

36.6)45678.98

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Anyone as old as me who can tell me? What websites can you refer me to?

1 Answer

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The way I was taught in grade school, the numbers went up on top, above the division bracket (I forgot what's it's called) instead of to the left of your line, but it's really the same thing.

    First when dividing by a fraction, multiply each by a factor of 10 to eliminate the decimal

    (Excuse all the periods, they are just space holders so things line up when submitting the answer)

    ............1248.06...............(answer would go above the bracket)

    .......___________

    366) 456789.8 .....|_____ <<-- or the answer goes here

    1 |.....366 then subtract

    ........________

    ...........90 then bring down the 7

    ...........907

    2 |.......732 then subtract

    ........________

    .......... 175 then bring down the 8

    ...........1758

    4 |.......1464 then subtract

    ........________

    ............294 then bring down the 9

    ............2949

    8 |........2928 then subtract

    ........________

    ................21 bring down the 8

    ................218

    0 |................0 then subtract

    ........_________

    ............... .218

    .................2180 bring down a zero

    5 |.............1830 then subtract

    .......__________

    ................. 350

    ...................3500 then bring down a zero

    9 |...............3294.....................there's no need to continue.

    Round answer to 2 decimals, the highest accuracy found in the original problem.

    1248.06

    (This was fun. I hope it's what you were looking for)

    PS: 45 divided by 5 is not 0.9, 9.0 would be correct.

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