Video Transcript
Evaluate 0.8 divided by 0.4.
So what we have here are two
terminating decimals, and we’re going to divide them. And we have a couple of methods to
do this. So what we’re gonna do is have a
look at both of them. So for method one, what we’re gonna
do is we’re gonna multiply both of our decimals. And we’re gonna multiply them both
by 10. And that’s because what we’re gonna
do is make it so, in fact, we’re not dividing decimals at all. We’re gonna be dividing units. So if we multiply 0.8 and 0.4 by
10, what’s gonna happen is that each of the numbers is going to move one place value
to the left. So what we’re gonna get is eight
divided by four. And we can do this because we’ve
done it to both terms. So therefore, it’s going to give us
the same result. Well, this is nice and
straightforward. And that’s because eight divided by
four is equal to two. So therefore, we can say that 0.8
divided by 0.4 is two.
So now we’re gonna take a look at
method two. And for method two, what we’re
going to do is convert both of our decimals to fractions. And we can do that because they’re
both terminating decimals. And we know that terminating
decimals are rational numbers, so therefore can be converted to a fraction with an
integer as the numerator and an integer as the denominator. Well, if we start with 0.8, what
this means is eight-tenths. Well, in turn, we can simplify
eight-tenths by dividing the numerator and denominator by two, which will give us
four-fifths. Then we have 0.4, which is gonna be
equal to four-tenths, which again we can simplify by dividing the numerator and
denominator by two to give us two-fifths.
Okay, great. We now got our two fractions. So we now have four-fifths divided
by two-fifths. And we’ve got a method for dividing
fractions. And what we can do is use our
memory aid to remind us how to do that. And that is KCF, which is keep it,
change it, flip it. And this means we keep the first
fraction the same, we change the sign from a divide to a multiply, and we flip the
second fraction. And it’s worth noting that if we
flip a fraction, this is in fact the reciprocal of that fraction. And then if we multiply two
fractions, all we do is multiply the numerators and multiply the denominators. So this is gonna be equal to 20
over 10, which once again gives us an answer of two.
Now this is quite straightforward
because we’re multiplying two easy fractions. However, there is a quick tip,
which can be useful. If you’re ever multiplying
fractions, have a look at the numerators and denominators and see if there’s a
common factor. So here we can see that five is a
common factor. So if we divide both the numerator
and denominator by five, we’re just left with four multiplied by one over one
multiplied by two, which is four over two, which again would’ve given us two.