INSTRUCTIONS

The following  image was made from Divide Fractions With Circles:

The parts of a division example are the dividend, the divisor, and the quotient.

When the program starts, you will be asked to identify the dividend. The picture shows a dividend of 3 1/2 circles.

Once the dividend is correctly identified, circles representing the divisor will appear. The picture shows a divisor of 1 1/6 circles. The program will not continue unless the dividend or the divisor are correctly identified.

You will then be asked to find the quotient. The quotient is the number of divisor circles that will fit into the dividend circles.

Imagine you are covering the dividend circles with the divisor circles. You might have to imagine some cutting and pasting to cover the dividend with the divisor. The third row, representing the quotient, shows how the divisor will fit into the dividend. There is a color change of light red and dark red after each divisor has been fit into the dividend. You can see from the image that 3 divisor circles fit into the dividend. The quotient then is 3.

To calculate the quotient,  first write the dividend and the divisor in fraction form as shown in the example below. Then multiply 7/2 by the inverse of the divisor. The inverse of the divisor is found by  replacing the numerator with the denominator and replacing the denominator with the numerator. In short,  divide by 7/6 by multiplying by 6/7.

See MULTIPLY FRACTIONS  for instructions on how to multiply fractions.

 See MULTIPLICATIVE INVERSE for more information on how to find the inverse.

Written out, the example would look like this:

The quotient in Divide Fractions will be a whole number from 1 to 12.