Remainders or Decimals

[Taz786]

Hi All, my daughter is 8 and we downloaded a practice test for her. One of the questions asked what isn’t 56/100, she is taught chunking in school so her answer was 1 r 44 however the correct answer was 0.56. I am a little confused as the practice paper was from twinkle which the teachers use, does the chunking by method become useless after a certain age? How do you know which way to answer that question? Thanks

Hi. I don’t have primary children, and no idea what chunking is, but she seems to have divided 100 by 56 instead of 56 by 100? Sorry if I’ve misunderstood.

Her answer was wrong because you have less than 100 items, and therefore cannot have an answer greater than 1. If she had chunked it to 0 r 56, it would have been right, if not in the format of the answers.

With most division sums a remainder should be fine at primary. However dividing by 10 and 100 is taught differently. To multiply by 10, the digits move one place to the left and to divide by 10, one place to the right. For example - 25 x10 =250 the '2' has moved from the tens to the hundreds, '5' from the units to the tens. 25÷10= 2.5 the '2' moved from the tens to the units and the '5' from units to the tenths column. For x and ÷ by 100, the digits move 2 places. In your example 56÷100 '5' moves to the tenths column and '6' to the hundredths column, therefore 0.56.

She's done 100/56 not 56/100 which is why her answer is wrong

This is fascinating. How is the answer of 0 r56 being correct preparing children for real life? Genuine question, not being snippy.

I thought things were simpler these days when everything is decimal. I had to do multiplication and division of fractions.

@user1469530553
It is much easier to multiply fractions than decimals.

@Taz786
Was the question 56/100 or 100/56, because your daughter answered 100/56 and the answer on the test is for 56/100.

This is a mental maths place-value question. The question is asking what is 56 divided by one hundred. If children have a good understanding of place value they will know that when you divide a number by a hundred, each digit becomes one hundred times smaller. the five digit in 56 is worth 5 tens. If you divide it be 100 it moves two places to the right (smaller) and becomes 5 tenths. Similarly the 6 digit is worth 6 ones in 56 and when you divide by 100 it becomes 6 hundredths. The answer is therefore 0.56. It’s quite hard to explain this without visuals. Try looking at this:

www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/factsheet/ma11divi-l1-f-dividing-by-10-100-and-1000

I’d wouldm’t have thought the answer would ever be 0 r56.

Tbh any form of written working out when dividing by 100 is likely to have the teacher banging their head on the desk. Typically children would be expected to work it out mentally using their knowledge of place value.

As above ÷ and x by 10, 100, 1000 is taught through knowledge of place value. Learning to move the digits to the left or right and how many places.
In your example, 56÷100 = 0.56

Hi All, thanks for the advice.

She is 9 now so my main question is, if she has a test and the question is 2 / 7 would she give an answer of 3 r1 or 3.5 if she knows both methods. The questions in the practice books or her mock exam do not say which is required.

2/7 would not give either of those answers. Do you not mean 7/2?

What method has she been using at school? We're can't tell you without knowing that

Apologies 7/2. She has learnt both ways at school, hence her confusion when division questions appear.

She could just put both answers then maybe

Year 4 teacher here we have just taught fractions and decimals if my class saw that they would be converting a fraction to a decimal which is 0.56 the question is asking what is 56 hundredths

7 ÷ 2 = 3.5
Half of 7 is 3.5
Our Year 6 children would answer with the decimal in that example.

She probably will only be asked over 10 or over 100 so looking for a decimal...place value

If she’s learnt both ways then either is acceptable unless it specified in the question. Or it’s a word question and one is more suitable for the context.

What practicallyperfect said. My Y4 child just did the same in maths.

Perfect thank you everybody.