Math Is Fun Forum

paulb203

Member

Registered: 2023-02-24

Posts: 416

Difference between divided by, and shared evenly between

Is there one?

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Divided by/shared evenly between
Does 10÷ 2 mean both;
10 divided by 2
and;
10 shared evenly between 2
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Also, can you give an example of 10 divided by 2?
I can grasp, for example, 10 sweets, shared evenly between 2 children (each child getting 5 sweets).
But 10 sweets divided by 2 children doesn’t sound right, to me.
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Does 10 divided by 2 simply mean; 10 split into 2 equal lots?

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Bob

Administrator

Registered: 2010-06-20

Posts: 10,765

Re: Difference between divided by, and shared evenly between

hi paulb203

They mean the same. In number theory, division is defined as the inverse operation to muliplication.

So if a times b = c then c divided by b is a.

This is why division by zero has no meaning.  [a times 0 = 0 for all a, so if we tried to calculate 0 / 0 we'd get a where a can be anything] and  [ x / 0 would mean what number must we multiply 0 by, to get x as our answer.  This cannot be answered.]

So an example would be what number when doubled gives 10 ?  x times 2 gives 10 can then be re-written as x = 10 / 2

Bob

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Children are not defined by school ...........The Fonz
You cannot teach a man anything;  you can only help him find it within himself..........Galileo Galilei
Sometimes I deliberately make mistakes, just to test you!  …………….Bob