I was studying for my GCSE in maths, doing fine, when someone told me that when you divide by 0.2, it is the same operation as multiplying by 5. I was thrown and didn't understand why this was. Can someone explain it to me?
For that specific example, or just in general.
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answers:
Prather say: Well, division is like dividing among people. If you've got six pieces and you divide them among three people, each person gets two pieces. If you divide the six pieces by one person, that person gets all six.
Now, you can't have half a person. But half the people means double the pieces for each, right? When you divide it by something less than 1, you get more than the original number because it's not really being divided.
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Suzanne say: your question is not properly asked, about dividing by a decimal, 'cause 2...2 is a decimal, for example...
your question would be properly asked, about dividing by a number that is less than one...
let's take the number 10 for example...
10 = 10/1
how numerous ones are in ten?
answer: 10...
how about this: 10/...5
how numerous halves are in ten?
answer: 20
how about this: 10/...1
how numerous tenths are in ten?
answer: 100
so, the smaller the divisor, the more of them there are in the answer... maybe i should have used one as an example... think about it:
1/1 = ?
1/...5 = ?
1/...25 = ?
1/...1 = ?
1/...01 = ?
1/...001 = ?
now the other part of your question...
reciprocals...
the reciprocal of ...5 is 2...
...5 = 1/2 and 2 = 2/1
the reciprocal of 1/2 is 2/1
1 divided by ...5 (which is 1/2) is the same as 1 times 2 (which is 2/1)...
i'm curious how old you are?