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Jan27

## Learn How to Do Division Word Problems with Decimals

Today we are going to review division word problems with decimals. Does it seem difficult? Well, it’s not! Solving division word problems with decimals is the same as solving them with whole numbers. I’m going to show you!

You can review what a decimal number is here. Every time we solve a word problem, the first thing to do is to read it carefully. Once we understand what it is asking us, the numbers won’t matter (big, small, decimals…). We are going to look at some examples:

##### Division word problems with decimals: Repetition

In the cheese factory, they make cheeses in different sizes. The small cheeses are sold in pieces, and the big ones are packaged in wedges. Identical wedges weighing 0.25 kg each are made from a big cheese weighing 2.5 kg. How many wedges can be made from each big cheese?

To solve this problem we have to think: With 2.5 kg of big cheese, how many wedges of 0.25 kg can we obtain? The whole cheese has been divided into equal parts, so in order to know how many wedges we can obtain, we should divide 2.5 kg by 0.25 kg:

2.5 kg ÷ 0.250 kg = 10

Answer: The big cheese can make 10 wedges.

##### Division word problems with decimals: Comparison

Maria and Vanessa are neighbors, and every week they go grocery shopping together. Last week Maria spent $45.75, exactly 3 times more than Vanessa spent. How much money did Vanessa spend? To solve this problem we should think: if Maria spent 3 times more than Vanessa than the money that Vanessa spent is 3 times less. So in order to find out how much Vanessa has spent, we will divide 45.75 by 3:$45.75 ÷ 3 = 15.25

##### Division Word problems with decimals: Formula

Yesterday Susana took a trip to visit some family. She covered a total of 135.75 miles without making any stops along the way, and it took her exactly 1.5 hours to arrive at her destination. At what average speed did she drive?

To solve this problem, we should think: if we are talking about miles and hours we will be expressing the speed as miles per hour (miles/hr, which means miles divided by hr). In other words, we need to calculate how many miles Susana covered each hour on average. Since we know she covered 135.75 miles in 1.5 hours, we will have to divide 135.75 by 1.5.

135.75 ÷ 1.5 = 90.5

Answer: Her average speed was 90.5 miles/hr.