Question Video: Dividing Decimal Numbers by 100

Video Transcript

What is 151.3 divided by 100?

We might look at this calculation and see that we’re starting with a decimal and think to ourselves, this is going to be tricky to work out. But then, when we look at the second part of the division, we know a strategy that we can use to help us.

We know that each column is worth ten times less than the one to the left. So, dividing a number by 10 means moving the digits one place to the right. And dividing by 100, which we need to do here, which is 10 lots of 10, means we need to move the digits two places to the right.

So, let’s use our place value grid to help us do this. 151.3. First, we’ll shift the digits one place to the right. And now we’ll shift them again. The answer is 1.513. We found the answer quickly because we know that dividing a number by 100 means that its digits shift two places to the right. And so, 151.3 becomes one and 513 thousandths, or 1.513.