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A rational number can be defined as the quotient of two integers (as long as the denominator is non-zero). A more detailed definition goes as follows: [10] A real number r is rational, if and only if it can be expressed as a quotient of two integers with a nonzero denominator. A real number that is not rational is irrational. Or more formally:
Apart from division by zero being undefined, the quotient is not an integer unless the dividend is an integer multiple of the divisor. For example, 26 cannot be divided by 11 to give an integer. Such a case uses one of five approaches: Say that 26 cannot be divided by 11; division becomes a partial function.
Decimal numbers are not divided directly, the dividend and divisor are multiplied by a power of ten so that the division involves two whole numbers. Therefore, if one were dividing 12,7 by 0,4 (commas being used instead of decimal points), the dividend and divisor would first be changed to 127 and 4, and then the division would proceed as above.
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.
Thought of partitively, a division problem might be solved by sorting the initial quantity into a specific number of groups by adding items to each group in turn. For instance, a deck of 52 playing cards could be divided among 4 players by dealing the cards to into 4 piles one at a time, eventually yielding piles of 13 cards each.
Zero divided by a negative or positive number is either zero or is expressed as a fraction with zero as numerator and the finite quantity as denominator. Zero divided by zero is zero. In 830, Mahāvīra unsuccessfully tried to correct the mistake Brahmagupta made in his book Ganita Sara Samgraha: "A number remains unchanged when divided by zero ...
One continues repeating step 2 until there are no digits remaining in the dividend. In this example, we see that 30 divided by 4 is 7 with a remainder of 2. The number written above the bar (237) is the quotient, and the last small digit (2) is the remainder.
The rings for which such a theorem exists are called Euclidean domains, but in this generality, uniqueness of the quotient and remainder is not guaranteed. [8] Polynomial division leads to a result known as the polynomial remainder theorem: If a polynomial f(x) is divided by x − k, the remainder is the constant r = f(k). [9] [10]