Using long division can be a challenge if you don’t know how to do it well. In this article, we will teach you how to calculate 72 divided by 18 using long division.
What you can expect to learn:
- How to use long division to calculate 72 divided by 18
- How to do the calculation faster so that you don’t spend too much time on it
- The main rules to apply when calculating any divisions using long division
Now that we have set our objectives for this exercise, let’s proceed to do it!
Understanding the parts of the 72 divided by 18 calculation:
You need to know which numbers are involved here and in what capacity.
- The number that is being divided is 72 and is called the dividend.
- The second number that is being divided by is 18 and is called the divisor.
- The result that we shall get after doing the calculation is called the quotient.
Now that we understand the parts of our division, we can go ahead and start doing the maths.
72 divided by 18 step-by-step process:
Step 1:
We begin by setting up our divisor on the left side and the dividend on the right side. Here is how:
18⟌72
Step 2:
The divisor (18) goes into the first digit of the dividend (7), 0 times. Why?
It’s simple. You ask yourself, can you put 18 into the first digit 7? You can’t. So if you can’t, then the answer is 0.
So we put 0 at the top as below:
0
18⟌72
Step 3:
We multiply the divisor (18) by the result (0) in the previous step.
18x 0 = 0
We put the 0 below:
0
18⟌72
0
Step 4:
Now we have to subtract the result from the previous step (0) from the first digit of dividend.
7 – 0 = 7
We put the answer in our calculations as shown below:
0
18⟌72
– 0
⏤⏤
7
Step 5:
Next, we need to pull the second digit of the dividend down as well. So it looks like this:
0
18⟌72
– 0
⏤⏤
72
Step 6:
Since we were not able to put 18 into 7 in our step 2, we will now try to put 18, our divisor, into 72, the dividend.
The question to ask is, how many times can 18 go into 72?
The diviser, 18, can go into 72, 4 time(s).
So we add 4 into the quotient as below:
04
18⟌72
– 0
⏤
72
Step 7:
We multiply the divisor 18 by the result in the previous step 4.
18 x 4 = 72
Then we add the answer to our division process like shown below:
04
18⟌72
– 0
⏤
72
72
Step 8:
Now we have to subtract our result in the step above from the number above it.
In this case 72 – 72 = 0
See below:
04
18⟌72
– 0
⏤⏤
72
– 72
⏤⏤
0
What is the answer to 72 divided by 18?
Because we don’t have any other digits to pull down from our dividend, the 0 at the end of the step above sums up the last step of our calculations.
The answer to 72 divided by 18 is the quotient, 4, that we got above.
You can do 72 divided by 18 using other ways like:
-
A calculator
If you typed in 72÷18 on a calculator you will get 4 as the result.
-
Mixed Fraction
If you divided 72/18 and wanted the answer as a mixed fraction, your answer will be 4 0/18 where 0 is the remainder, 4 is the quotient and 18 is the divisor from our calculations in step 8 above.