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Why does dividing by 5 by a decimal less than 1 give a quotient greater than 5

User Cmpolis
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2 Answers

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Final answer:

Dividing a number by a decimal less than 1 results in a quotient greater than the original number.

Step-by-step explanation:

When dividing a number by a decimal less than 1, such as dividing 5 by 0.2, the quotient will be greater than 5 because dividing by a smaller decimal results in a larger number. To understand why, let's look at an example:

Dividing 5 by 0.2:

5 ÷ 0.2 = 25

Here, 0.2 is smaller than 1, so when we divide 5 by 0.2, the result is 25, which is greater than 5. This is because dividing by a smaller decimal creates larger quotients.

User Tomcounsell
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5 votes

Because dividing 5 by something means "how many times
can that 'something' fit into 5 ?

If the 'something' is less than ' 1 ', then of course it can fit into 5
more than 5 times.


User Chris Eberle
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