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Splitting up the Booty

We know that many of you are going to go out and become pirates. You're going to be out there dividing up treasure chests full of money. Maybe you will just be out with your friends and come across buried treasure. If you go into politics, you might be forced to work with budgets and divide up money to different departments. We just want to let you know that, even if you are a pirate, you will need to know some division. There is no escape.

We look at the idea of money in the addition and subtraction sections. In the United States we have dollars and cents, and each cent is 0.01 of a dollar. If you made it through the page on decimals, dividing money will be like a review for you.

Problem:
You have $15.36 and you need to divide the money to five friends.

Steps to Solve:
Total money ÷ Number of people = Money for each person
15.36 ÷ 6 = ?
• Since the divisor (6) doesn't have any decimal places, you don't need to move your decimal place in the dividend.
• Does 6 go into 15? Yes, two times. Write 2 and a decimal point in your quotient.
• Multiply and Subtract to get a difference of 3.
• Bring down the 3 to make 33.
• Does 6 go into 33? Yes, five times. Write 5 in your quotient.
• Multiply and Subtract to get a difference of 3.
• Bring down the 6 to make 36.
• Does 6 go into 36? Yes, six times. Write 6 in your quotient.
• Multiply and Subtract to get a difference of 0. (No remainder and no more numbers in the dividend.)

Answer:
$15.36 ÷ 6 = $2.56 given to each person.

That's really all there is to these types of problems. One more example and we're done.

Problem:
A store wants to make $150 after they sell a container of stuffed animals. There are 40 toys in each container. How much will each stuffed animal cost?

Steps to Solve:
Total amount they want to make ÷ Number of toys = Price for each toy.
150 ÷ 40 = ?
• No need to worry about moving decimal points.
• Does 4 go into 150? Yes, three times. Write 3 in your quotient.
• Multiply and Subtract to get a difference of 30.
• You.re out of values in your dividend, so add a decimal point and two zeros.
• Bring down the 0 to make 300.
• Does 40 go into 300? Yes, seven times. Write 7 in your quotient after the decimal point.
• Multiply and Subtract to get a difference of 20.
• Bring down the 0 to make 200.
• Does 40 go into 200? Yes, five times. Write 5 in your quotient.
• Multiply and Subtract to get a difference of 0. (No remainder and no more numbers in the dividend.)

Answer:
$150.00 ÷ 40 = $3.75 for each stuffed animal.

Check your work...
• 40 40 Stuffed animals * $3.75 for each toy = $150 made by the store.
• 40 * 3.75 = 150

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