How to Learn Long Division: Learning Long Division Made Easy

Learning Long Division

How to Do Long Division

When you see a division problem too complicated to solve mentally, you can solve it using long division. The steps to divide on a piece of paper are 'divide, multiply, subtract, bring down'. Take the equation 454 ÷ 14. You can draw a long division bracket with 454 inside and 14 just outside the bracket to the left.

Now the first step is to ask how many times four goes into 14. Since it goes in three times, you can write a three on the top of the box on the left-hand side. Next, multiply three by four and write the answer (12) under the 454. Now subtract 12 from 14 (so you'll have two), and bring down the next number of the dividend, which in this case is five. You now need to divide 25 by 14 to re-start the steps. Since 14 goes into 25 once, write a one on the top of the box beside the three.

After going through the remaining steps again, you'll reach the final answer, which is 32.4. Some teachers will ask you to round numbers with decimals. For instance, the answer 32.4 would be rounded down to 32.

Practice Problems

You can go over the long division procedure using these practice problems. Use a scrap piece of paper to work them out using long division.

1. 712 ÷ 56
2. 294 ÷ 9
3. 666 ÷ 10
4. 509 ÷ 80
5. 325 ÷ 28

Answers

1. 12.71
2. 32.66
3. 66.6
4. 6.36
5. 11.60

Short Division

Short division is just a faster way of solving complicated division problems using a paper and pencil. Rather than going through all the 'divide, multiply, subtract, bring down' stages, you just 'divide' and copy down remainders in smaller handwriting to the right of the number.

Take for example 525 ÷ 9. In short division, you simply divide 52 by 9, to get 5 with remainder 7. Write the 5 above the 525, and write the remainder as a smaller digit to the right of the 2 in 525. Now combine the reminder, 7, with the next digit over, the 5, and divide 75 by 9. The answer comes to 8 with a remainder of 3. Write the 8 on top, beside the 5. The remainder of this last equation will be your final remainder. The final solution is 58.3.