Question

Why does dividing by 10 shift each digit one place to the right?

Answer 1

When we divide a decimal fraction by a power of 10, the product will be smaller than the original number; therefore we are shifting to the right on the place value chart.

Answer 2

Because the system we use is base 10, meaning there are 10 different symbols, 0 - 9.
if we used a base 12 system we would have 0 - 9, a symbol for 10 and a symbol for 11 and to shift a digit you would have to divide by 12.