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Division is also not, in general, associative, meaning that when dividing multiple times, the order of division can change the result. [7] For example, (24 / 6) / 2 = 2 , but 24 / (6 / 2) = 8 (where the use of parentheses indicates that the operations inside parentheses are performed before the operations outside parentheses).
An orange that has been sliced into two halves. In mathematics, division by two or halving has also been called mediation or dimidiation. [1] The treatment of this as a different operation from multiplication and division by other numbers goes back to the ancient Egyptians, whose multiplication algorithm used division by two as one of its fundamental steps. [2]
The known values assigned to the unlike part of two or more terms are called coefficients. As this example shows, when like terms exist in an expression, they may be combined by adding or subtracting (whatever the expression indicates) the coefficients, and maintaining the common factor of both terms.
Long division is the standard algorithm used for pen-and-paper division of multi-digit numbers expressed in decimal notation. It shifts gradually from the left to the right end of the dividend, subtracting the largest possible multiple of the divisor (at the digit level) at each stage; the multiples then become the digits of the quotient, and the final difference is then the remainder.
For associative algebras, the definition can be simplified as follows: a non-zero associative algebra over a field is a division algebra if and only if it has a multiplicative identity element 1 and every non-zero element a has a multiplicative inverse (i.e. an element x with ax = xa = 1).
The division of two whole numbers does not necessarily result in a whole number. For example, 1 divided by 4 equals 1/4, which is neither even nor odd, since the concepts of even and odd apply only to integers. But when the quotient is an integer, it will be even if and only if the dividend has more factors of two than the divisor. [6]
The concept of a division of a question dates back to at least 1640, when the Lex Parliamentaria noted, "If a Question upon a Debate contains more Parts than one, and Members seem to be for one Part, and not for the other; it may be moved, that the same may be divided into two, or more Questions: as Dec. 2, 1640, the Debate about the Election of two Knights was divided into two Questions."
The combination of these two symbols is sometimes known as a long division symbol or division bracket. [8] It developed in the 18th century from an earlier single-line notation separating the dividend from the quotient by a left parenthesis. [9] [10] The process is begun by dividing the left-most digit of the dividend by the divisor.