Question

Bill spent $32 on four fancy pens. How much did each pen cost?

Answer 1

`32 div 4 = $8`

Explanation:

The calculation is an easy one, but the first decision is which operation do we need to do?

Addition, subtraction, multiplication or division?

We could reason this one in two steps:

If the cost of 4 pens is `$32`
The cost of 2 pens will be `$16" "larr` half as many pens
the cost of 1 pen will be `$8" "larr` half as many pens again.

You can do this in one step by dividing by 4:

If the cost of 4 pens is `$32`
The cost of 1 pen is `32 div 4 = $8`

"Find the cost of each" usually indicates that it is division. (Equal sharing.)