Dividing a number by 2 is also called halving.
Dividing a number by 2 can be simplified by splitting the number into smaller, more manageable parts. It can be done in a step by step fashion to make the procedure easier.
- Half of 8 is 4.
- Half of 40 is 20.
- Half of 10 is 5.
- Half of 30 is 15.
- Half of 900 is 450.
| Example 6.1 46÷2 | = half of 40 + half of 6= 20 + 3
= 23 |
| Example 6.2: 58 ÷2 | = half of 50 + half of 8= 25 + 4
= 29 |
| Example 6.3: 908 ÷2 | = half of 900 + half of 8= 450 + 4
= 454 |
Longer numbers can be split.
| Example 6.4 5046 ÷2 | = 50|46 ÷2= 25|23 |
Some prefer to solve Ex. 6.2 as follows:
| Example 6.5: 58 ÷2 | = half of 40 + half of 18= 20 + 9
= 29 |
The preceeding example leads to another procedure of dividing by 2, which can be developed further into a single-line division technique.
Example 6.6: 3, 742 ÷2 =
Step 1) 3 divided by 2 is 1 remainder 1.
Step 2) The remainder becomes the first digit of the next dividend 17, which when divided by 2 will give 8 and a remainder of 1.
Step 3) The next dividend will then be 14 (first digit is the remainder of 1 from the previous operation) which evenly divides to give 7.
Step 4) The last digit of the dividend is 2 which gives 1 when halved.
The final answer is 1871.
Example 6.7: 5789 ÷2 =
517 8 9 ÷ 2 = 2 5 divided by 2 is 2 remainder 1
51718 9 ÷ 2 = 28 17 divided by 2 is 8 remainder 1
51718 9 ÷ 2 = 289 18 divided by 2 is 9, no remainder
51718 9.10 ÷ 2 = 2894 9 divided by 2 is 4 remainder 1
51718 9.10 ÷ 2 = 2894.5 10 divided by 2 is 5 no remainder.
Exercise 6: Halve the following numbers
1) 468
2) 1,264
3) 3,456
4) 2,752
5) 2,526
6) 7,338
7) 5,372
8) 6,784
9) 8,357
10) 101,303
Answers to all exercises are found in the answer key.
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