Question

How do you divide a number by a fraction?

For example, how would I go about solving this problem?

:

200.96 ÷ 3/4 =

Detailed answers only please.

Answer 1

There are a couple of different ways we can do this: change the fraction into a decimal or multiply by the reciprocal.

Change the Fraction Into a Decimal

---3/4 = 0.75

So, instead of using the fraction, we can put it into decimal form. We will need to move the decimal point in both numbers though, making our division problem as follows:

20096 / 75 = ?

---The decimal point was moved two places to the right in order to make the former fraction a whole number.

Multiply by the Reciprocal

---To find the reciprocal, switch the numerator and denominator, essentially "flipping" the fraction upside down.

Another way of dividing by fractions is multiplying by the reciprocal. For example, dividing a number by 3 is the same thing as multiplying by 1/3. We can do the same in this problem. Instead of dividing by 3/4, we can multiply by 4/3, making our problem look as follows:

200.96/1 x 4/3 = ?

Answer: 803.84 / 3 = 267.9467

Hope this helps!