We divide both numbers by 10 to get 3 and 43. We add three zeros after the decimal so that we can
calculate the answer to two decimal places. (Always add one more 0 than the number of decimal places
required.) Our problem now looks like this:
We divide 3 into 4 for an answer of 1 with 1 remainder, which we carry to the 3, making 13. Then we
multiply the answer, 1, by −2 to get an answer of −2. Take this 2 from our working number, 13, to get
11.
How many times will 3 divide into 11? Three times 3 is 9, so the answer is 3 times, with 2 remainder.
The 2 remainder is carried to the next digit, making 20.
We adjust the 20 by multiplying: 3 ×2 = −6. Then we subtract.
20 − 6 = 14
We now divide 14 by 3. Three divides into 14 four times, with 2 remainder. Four is the next digit of
our answer.
Multiply the last digit of the answer, 4, by the 2 of 32, to get 8. Then:
20 − 8 = 12
Three divides into 12 exactly 4 times with no remainder.
The next step would be to multiply 4 times 2 to get 8.
We subtract 8 from our remainder, which is 0, so we end up with a negative answer. That won’t do, so
we drop our last digit of the answer by 1. Our last digit of the answer is now 3, with 3 remainder.
Three times 2 is 6, subtracted from 30 leaves 24. Twenty-four divided by 3 is 8 (with 0 remainder).
We need a remainder to subtract from, so we drop the 8 to 7 with 3 remainder. The answer now
becomes 13.437. Because we want an answer correct to two decimal places, we look at the third digit
after the decimal. If the digit is 5 or higher we round off upwards; if the digit is less than 5 we round off
downwards. In this case the digit is 7 so we round off the previous digit upwards. The answer is 13.44,
correct to two decimal places.