Video Transcript
Use the symbol for “is less than,”
“is equal to,” or “is greater than” to fill in the blank. 12 divided by six, what, four
divided by two.
In this question, we need to
compare two division expressions together. And once we’ve compared them, we
need to choose the correct symbol to put in between them. Is 12 divided by six less than four
divided by two? Are they both worth exactly the
same? Or is it greater than four divided
by two?
Now, sometimes we can look at a
couple of expressions like this and we can see something in common between them. Perhaps the starting number is the
same or the number that we’re dividing by is exactly the same. When we spot little patterns like
this, we can use it to help us. We can often find out the actual
answer without needing to calculate anything. We can just use our number sense to
help, our knowledge of how numbers work and how divisions work.
But if we look at the two divisions
in this question, we can see that they both contain different numbers. It looks like perhaps that quickest
way to find out the answer to this question is going to be to solve each
division. If we can find out what each
expression is worth, then we can compare the answers.
Firstly, let’s think about 12
divided by six. This is asking us, how many sixes
are there in 12? We know that two times six equals
12. And so we can say 12 divided by six
equals two. The value of our first expression
is two. Our second expression is four
divided by two. It’s asking us, how many twos are
there in four? Well, we know that two times two
equals four. And so four divided by two must be
equal to two. It looks like the value of both
division expressions are exactly the same. And so we need to use a symbol that
shows that 12 divided by six is the same as four divided by two. The correct symbol to use to fill
in the gap is the equal sign.
