Divide and conquer: Tips and tricks to master division in Math

Master the concept of division using this practical guide and engaging activities, tips & tricks.

Make Division Simpler for Kids

Once children learn the concept of addition and subtraction, the next hurdle they face is learning multiplication and division. Division, in particular, takes more time (compared to multiplication) and can be a difficult concept for children to understand.

The key to mastering them is to practice more, and also use simple techniques to explain the concept better.

Use concepts such as Skip Counting and Repeated Subtraction. Encourage kids to skip count to understand division. For instance, if you are dividing 12 by 3, have them count in threes: 3, 6, 9, 12, to see how many groups of 3 are there in 12.

Division can also be thought of as repeated subtraction. For example, if you have 15 cookies and want to divide them among 5 people, keep subtracting 5 from 15 until there are no more cookies left. They will realize that it takes 3 subtractions of 5 to reach 0.

Use objects like blocks, candies, or toys (use Visual Aids) to represent the division problem. For example, if you have 12 chocolates and want to divide them equally among 3 friends, physically grouping the chocolates into three sets will help them understand the concept of division and sharing.

Incorporate division into everyday activities. For instance, if you have 10 cake slices which needs to be equally divided between you and your child, divide them into two groups to see how many each of you gets.

Explain to them that Division is the opposite of Multiplication. Explain to the child that division is the reverse of multiplication. For instance, if 4 x 3 = 12, then 12 ÷ 4 = 3, and 12 ÷ 3 = 4.

This is also a good time to introduce your child to word problems. Frame division problems as story questions.

Encourage your child to say or write the problem.

For example: “Three friends order one large pizza that has 12 pieces. How many pieces would each friend get?”

To help your child solve this problem, take three paper plates and tell your child to equally distribute the pieces in the three plates. You can do this activity with chocolates as well.

Using such activities makes learning division fun for children.

Formula for Division Problem

Division is reverse multiplication and the following equation holds true for division.

Dividend = (Divisor x Quotient) + Remainder,
where Dividend is the number to be divided and Divisor is the number by which the Dividend is to be divided.

You can use this to check if your division is correct.

For example, 12 divided by 4 = 3.
Here, Dividend = 12, Divisor = 4, Quotient = 3, Remainder = 0.

So, applying the above check, you get:

12 = (4 x 3) + 0, which makes

12 = 12 (so the division was correct)

Properties of Division

Here are some properties of division.

Zero divided by any number will give zero as the quotient. So, 0 &divide 10 = 0.

Any number divided by 1 is the number itself. So, 15 &divide 1 = 15.

Any number divided by itself gives 1 as the quotient. So, 25 &divide 25 = 1.

We cannot divided any number by zero.

Division by numbers ending with zeros. When we divide a number by 10, we take away one zero from its right. So, 2000 / 10 = 200.

Related: Rules to check divisibility of numbers.

What is a Factor?

Factors are numbers that we multiply to get another number.

We know that multiplicand multiply by multiplier is equal to the product. In this case, multiplicand and multiplier are factors.

So, we know that 6 x 7 = 42. In this case, 6 and 7 are both factors of 42.

Another example. 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 = 720. In this case, we can say that 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are all factors of 720.

Properties of Factors:

• Every number is a factor of itself. It is also the greatest factor of that number. For example 6 x 1 = 6, 9 x 1 =9.

• 1 is a factr of every number. It is also the smallest factor of a number.

• The factor of a number will always be less than or equal to the number, and never greater than the number.

• One number can have different set of factors. For example. 12=3×4, 12=2×6, 12=2x3x3

• Common Factors: Factors that are common to two or more numbers are known as the common factors of those number.
  For example. Factors of 9 are the numbers 1, 3 and 9. Factors of 15 are the numbers 1, 3, 5 and 15. common Factors of 9 and 15 are the numbers 1 and 3.

Also Read: Divisibility rules for various numbers: Tests of Divisibility