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As in all division problems, one number, called the dividend, is divided by another, called the divisor, producing a result called the quotient. It enables computations involving arbitrarily large numbers to be performed by following a series of simple steps. [ 1 ]
What is being divided is called the dividend, which is divided by the divisor, and the result is called the quotient. At an elementary level the division of two natural numbers is, among other possible interpretations , the process of calculating the number of times one number is contained within another.
It is an abbreviated form of long division — whereby the products are omitted and the partial remainders are notated as superscripts. As a result, a short division tableau is shorter than its long division counterpart — though sometimes at the expense of relying on mental arithmetic, which could limit the size of the divisor.
The division sign (÷) is a mathematical symbol consisting of a short horizontal line with a dot above and another dot below, used in Anglophone countries to indicate the operation of division. This usage, though widespread in some countries, is not universal and the symbol has a different meaning in other countries.
In mathematics, the first symbol is mainly used in Anglophone countries to represent the mathematical operation of division and is called an obelus. [3] In editing texts, the second symbol, also called a dagger mark † is used to indicate erroneous or dubious content; [4] [5] or as a reference mark or footnote indicator. [6]
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.
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A common technique used for division is called long division. Other methods include short division and chunking. [72] Integer arithmetic is not closed under division. This means that when dividing one integer by another integer, the result is not always an integer. For instance, 7 divided by 2 is not a whole number but 3.5. [73]