Division

Division is an essential concept in mathematics. It's a way to split a number into equal parts.

A) Definitions

Kevin, Aisha, and Louis have 6 apples. They want to share these apples equally.

How many apples will each friend get?

To divide

6

apples among

3

friends:

Each friend receives

2

apples.
When we say

6

apples divided among

3

friends, we can write it as

6 \div 3 = 2

. The symbol

\div

means "divided by."

Definition Division

Division is the process of splitting a number into equal parts or groups. The

\div

symbol indicates division.Division can be represented in several ways:

Method Number of items in each group

When you know the

total

and the

number of groups

, division finds the

number of items in each group

\begin{aligned} total \div number of groups & = number of items in each group \end{aligned}

For example, we have

12

apples, equally shared among

4

friends.

Each friend receives

12 \div 4 = 3

apples.

Method Number of groups

If you know the

total

and the

number of items in each group

, division finds the

number of groups

\begin{aligned} total \div number of items in each group & = number of groups \end{aligned}

For example, we have

15

apples and pack them into boxes, each holding

5

apples.

Thus,

15 \div 5 = 3

is the number of boxes.

You have $3$ columns of $2$ cubes each. How many cubes are there in total? (This involves multiplication.)
You have $6$ cubes to share equally into $3$ columns. How many cubes will each column have? (This involves division.)

Proposition Multiplication and Division are Inverse Operations

Multiplication and division undo each other:

\begin{aligned} 3 \times 2 & = 6 \\ 6 \div 3 & = 2 \\ 6 \div 2 & = 3 \end{aligned}