decimal places and 22.9 to one decimal place, which was the required answer. For b) you would have
doubled both numbers to make the calculation 6,912 ÷ 302. Then you estimate each digit of the answer
by dividing by 100 × 3.
Long division is not difficult. It has a bad reputation. It doesn’t deserve it. Many people have learnt
long division, but they haven’t been taught properly. Anything is difficult if you don’t understand it and
you don’t know how to do it very well.
Break big problems down to little problems and you can do them.
In the next chapter you will learn an easy method to do long division in your head.
Note to parents and teachers
I was speaking to teachers at a special government programme in the United States and I said I always use factors for long division,
even when I am dividing by a prime number. That was too much for one teacher, who was one of the organisers of the programme,
and he challenged me to explain myself. I gave a quick summary of this chapter, and he said, ‘You know, that is how I have always
done long division, but I have never thought to explain it that way before.’