How do you explain the division of 222/22 to a young one using the long division method?
1 Answer
Use an image of bins, or the visual aid of measured squares.
Explanation:
"Long Division" can be seen as a number short-hand for physical bins or boxes. The numbers on top are how many of the numerator (top value) fit into the denominator (bottom value).
The long division format helps us to successively see how the smaller pieces keep "fitting" until we have all of the "bins" are filled. There is an actual system that uses this approach for teaching, but I forgot the name it goes by.
With this method, you would make a box with 222 squares, and another set of boxes containing 22 squares. If cut correctly (or you can use individual squares for even more problems) it will become an easy, fun and educational puzzle to see that you can only fit 10 22-square box units into the larger 222-square box, with 2 small box units left open.
Using unit boxes and just combining them into larger "numbers" as needed, a simple 10x10 grid on a paper can provide many examples of division problems. How many small boxes can fit into a particular size larger box?
