ShmoopTube

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Word Problems with Division of Multi-Digits, a la Shmoop.

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If you’re anything like us, you love word problems. [Girl shouting]

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It’s so nice to be reminded that math is something that actually has some application

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in the real world, rather than just a jumbled mess of numbers and letters. [Huge equation appears on a blackboard]

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That said, they’re pretty good in soup. [Girl eating soup full of numbers]

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So…what do we do when we’re faced with a word problem, and it wants us to divide [Scary looking face 'word problem' appears and a boy looks scared]

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one number by another…and at least one of those numbers has more than one digit?

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Other than panic, flip out, put a paper bag over our head and hope no one finds us? [The boy hiding under a paper bag]

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Let’s use a relatively simple example, so you don’t have to resort to any…desperate

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head-bagging measures. [The boy comes out from under the paper bag]

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Okay…so we’re given the following problem:

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Maggie’s getting married and has asked her 7 bridesmaids to help her make 136 papier-mâché

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cupids to hang around the reception hall.

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Her bridesmaids, who decide to stick by Maggie in spite of her tacky, horrendous idea, want [The question being written out]

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to split the work evenly among them.

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How many cupids should each girl make?

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First of all… papier-mâché cupids…really?

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We don’t know this girl or her fiancé, but…we have a feeling it won’t last. Oof. [Fiancé looking unimpressed]

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Okay, so… when presented with a word problem like this, the first thing we need to do is [The angry looking word problem at the docs]

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make sure we understand everything the problem is telling us.

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For example…we know we’ve got 136 cupids that have to be made, but…how many worker [The number of cupids is highlighted]

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bees do we have assigned to the project? [Bees flying around]

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You can’t just skim the problem and say, “7.”

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Maggie is asking her bridesmaids to HELP her make them…meaning we actually have eight

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people on deck for this nightmarish activity. [Girls look horrified]

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Okay…now that we understand the particulars, we need to set up the problem. [Solution appears next to the word problem and a guy introduces them]

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How do we get to our answer?

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Well, we’ve got 136 cupids…and they need to be divided evenly between 8 people…

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…so our problem should look like this:

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136 divided by 8 equals… our answer.

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Now it’s just a matter of doing the math. 136 divided by 8 comes out neatly and evenly…

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to 17.

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So each bridesmaid – plus our bride – needs to make 17 cupids. [The 7 woman's faces surrounding a big pile of cupids]

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We can double-check our answer by multiplying 8 by 17…

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…and yup. We come up with 136.

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And that’s it.

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You may have to deal with more complicated problems or bigger numbers, but the steps [Guy climbing a mountain covered in math problems]

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you need to take to arrive at an answer will always be the same.

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So the next time you’re attempting to solve a tough algebra problem… [Guy at a desk gives up and chucks his book down]

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…just stop a moment and be grateful you’re not creating winged, naked babies out of a [The bridesmaid pulling crazy and scared faces]

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sticky mixture of paper and glue.

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Things can always be worse…

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