Division is a fundamental arithmetic operation that involves separating a larger number into smaller parts. It is represented by the symbol “/”, and the result of division is called the quotient. In this article, we’ll explore the basics of division by focusing on the problem “144 divided by 9.”
What is 144?
Before we can divide 144 by 9, it’s important to understand what the number 144 represents. 144 is a composite number that is the square of 12. It has several factors, including 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 72. These factors can be used to find the prime factorization of 144, which is 2^4 x 3^2.
What is Division?
Division is the process of finding out how many times one number is contained within another number. For example, if we have 12 apples and we want to divide them equally among 3 people, we would divide 12 by 3 to get 4 apples per person. In mathematical terms, we would write this as 12 ÷ 3 = 4.
How to Divide 144 by 9
Now that we have a basic understanding of what division is, we can move on to dividing 144 by 9. To do this, we need to find out how many times 9 is contained within 144. We can do this by using long division.
First, we write 144 as the dividend and 9 as the divisor:
16
9 | 144
9
—
24
18
—
6
Starting from the left, we divide 9 into the first digit of 144, which is 1. Since 9 is less than 10, we can’t divide it into 1, so we move to the next digit, which is 14. We can divide 9 into 14 once, which gives us 9. We write this above the 4.
Next, we multiply 9 by 9, which gives us 81. We write this below 14 and subtract to get 5. We bring down the next digit, which is 4, and we get 54.
We repeat the process by dividing 9 into 54, which gives us 6. We write this above the 4, and we multiply 9 by 6 to get 54. We write this below 54 and subtract to get 0. Since there are no more digits to bring down, we have the final result:
16
9 | 144
9
—
24
18
—
6
Therefore, 144 divided by 9 equals 16.
Why is Division Useful?
Division is a fundamental arithmetic operation that is used in everyday life. It’s used in baking to divide ingredients, in carpentry to measure and cut materials, in finance to calculate interest rates and profits, and in many other fields. Division is also a key concept in mathematics, and it lays the foundation for higher-level concepts like fractions, decimals, and algebra.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve explored the basics of division by focusing on the problem “144 divided by 9.” We’ve learned that division is the process of finding out how many times one number is contained within another number, and we’ve used long division to find the quotient of 144 divided by 9, which is 16. Division is a fundamental arithmetic operation that is used in everyday life and lays the foundation for higher-level concepts in mathematics.