Number System - Dividing a number by a value which is greater than 0 and less than 1

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When I see a m/n equation, I thought it as the value of each part of m if m gets divided n number of times. For, 10/2, 10 to be divided into 2 parts so each part holds value equal to 5. 10/1 implies 10 to be divided into only 1 part so that single part holds all the value that is 10.

But, for 10/0.01, I cannot decipher the logic of dividing into 0.01 parts. Can someone help me to explain these in words along the same lines of dividing the number into those many parts.

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There are 4 best solutions below

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Stef On BEST ANSWER

X / Y = Z and X / Z = Y ought to be equivalent. Y and Z play a symmetric role in these equations, because these equations are also equivalent to X = Y × Z and X = Z × Y.

Depending on how you look at it, maybe Y is the number of parts and Z is the size of each part, or maybe Y is the size of each part and Z is the number of parts.

So, instead of reading "10/0.01 is 10 divided into 0.01 parts", you can say: "10/0.01 is the number of parts of size 0.01 that can fit into 10".

And indeed, it is true that if you have an empty bottle of volume 10L, and a small cup of volume 0.01L, then you can pour 10/0.01 = 1000 cups of water into the bottle.


Alternatively, if you insist on 10 being a number of cakes and 0.01 being a number of shares:

The population of Luxembourg is 0.01 of the population of France. If I give one cake to France and 10 cakes to Luxembourg, how much cake will a Luxembourger eat relatively to a French?

The answer is 10/0.01 = 1000. The share of cake eaten by a Luxembourger is 1000 bigger than the share of cake eaten by a French.

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user1934428 On

Since 0.01 = 1/100, we have

10/0.01 = 10 / (1/100)

Now we know that X/Y = X*(1/Y). Hence X/(Y/Z) = X*(Z/Y)

This gives us 10/(1/100) = 10*(100/1)

Since 100/1 is obviously 100, we have

10/0.01 = 10*100 = 1000
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Petra Minaler On

A division by a number between 0 and 1 is equivalent to a multiplication by its reciprocal.

Example:

10 / 0.01 = 10 / (1 / 100) = 10 * 100

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Jiu_Zou On

both of them multiply 100 10 / 0.01 = 1000 / 1 = 1000