109.50 divided by 1.46 - how are you supposed to work this out

[IDugUpADiamond]

if you're 10 yo?

I think maths has changed since I was at school - do they still learn long division? If I was doing it I'd take out the decimal points, and do long division on it as whole numbers, would make it simpler to me at least. Does it follow on from what they were doing in lessons?

With a calculator.

(Maths teacher!)

Long division.
They can multiply both by 100 if the decimal is confusing.

Yep - multiply both by 100 to remove decimal and then chunk!

So:
10950 / 146

10950
-7300 (50 x 146)
-----
3650
-2920 (20 x 146)
-----
730
-730 (5 x 146)
--
0

50 + 20 + 5 = 75

Easy

Please explain this? I am fascinated!

I agree with Khara

fizzly Do you know about number lines?

Draw a number line with 10950 at the end. Then do repeated subtraction down from it. You can take 10x146 away 7 times (according to Khara, I haven't checked), and then end up with 730. Then take 146 away 5 times and end up with 0.

So you have taken away 75 lots of 146, so 75*146=10950.

Khara has gone 2 steps cleverer than this:

First, understanding you can take away 50146 and 20146 and 5*146 instead of just lots of 10 or 1.
Second, throwing away the number line and just using subtraction.

The next step on would be long division, which probably a 10 year old wouldn't be doing with these kinds of number.

(As an aside, you could have divide both by 2 to start with to simplify down to 5475*73 which would have been a bit easier)

Khara thank you. DS got it with your explanation. This was an 11+ question by the way.