Video Transcript
A teacher bought a roll of ribbon to divide between her excellent students. The ribbon was 4.4 meters long. And each excellent student got a piece that was two and a fifth meters long. How many excellent students were there?
We’re being asked to divide the 4.4 meters by two and a fifth meters. The first number is a decimal. And the second number is a mixed number. Before we can divide, it would help if both numbers were the same. Let’s convert two and a fifth meters into a decimal. First, we need to work out how much a fifth of a meter would be as a decimal. How do we write one-fifth as a decimal? If we take one and divide it into five equal parts, each part is worth a fifth. If we divide one into 10 equal parts, each part will be worth a tenth or 0.1. We can see that one-fifth is equal to 0.2. So two and one-fifth is equal to 2.2.
Now we can calculate how many 2.2s there are in 4.4. There are two 2.2s in 4.4. Double 2.2 is 4.4. If a teacher has a roll of ribbon 4.4 meters long and each of her excellent students gets a piece which is two and fifth meters long. There would be two excellent students. 4.4 divided by two and a fifth is the same as 4.4 divided by 2.2. And 4.4 divided by 2.2 equals two.
There were two excellent students.
