ffirs.indd

Standard Long Division Made Easy 155
as a decimal), because we doubled the numbers we are working with,
the remainder will be double the true remainder. Th at is because our
remainder is a fraction of 504 and not 252. So, for a fi nal step to
fi nd the remainder, we divide 434 by 2 to get an answer of 8 r217.
If you are calculating the answer to any number of decimal places,
then no such change is necessary. Th at is because ⁄ is the same
as ⁄.
Test you rself
Try these problems for yourself. Calculate the remainder
for a) and the answer to one decimal place for b).
a) 2,456 ÷ 389 =
b) 3,456 ÷ 151 =
The answers are:
a) 6 r122 b) 22.9
Th e answer to b) is 22.8874 to four decimal places, 22.887 to
three decimal places, 22.89 to two 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.
Th en you estimate each digit of the answer by dividing by 100 × 3.
Long division is not diffi cult. It has a bad reputation. It doesn’t
deserve it. Many people have learned long division, but they haven’t
been taught properly. Anything is diffi cult 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.