Okay, so today I wanted to figure out how to divide 8 by 2 1/2. It’s one of those things that seems simple, but you gotta think about it a little, right?
Getting Started
First, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. I like to write things out, it helps me see what I’m doing. I wrote down “8 ÷ 2 1/2”.
Dealing with the Mixed Number
The tricky part is that 2 1/2. It’s a mixed number, meaning it has a whole number and a fraction. I needed to turn that into something easier to work with. I remembered that you can change a mixed number into an improper fraction.
- I multiplied the whole number (2) by the denominator of the fraction (2), which gave me 4.
- Then, I added the numerator (1) to that, which gave me 5.
- I put that 5 over the original denominator (2), so 2 1/2 became 5/2.
The Division
Now I had 8 ÷ 5/2. I remembered that dividing by a fraction is the same as multiplying by its reciprocal. It’s like, flipping the fraction upside down.
The reciprocal of 5/2 is 2/5.
So, I changed the problem to 8 x 2/5. That’s way easier!
Doing the Math
I treated the 8 like a fraction, 8/1. Then I just multiplied straight across:
- 8/1 x 2/5
- Multiply the numerators: 8 x 2 = 16
- Multiply the denominators: 1 x 5 = 5
That gave me 16/5.
The Final Answer
16/5 is an improper fraction. It shows that the final answer is bigger than 1. I can just leave it like that.
So, 8 divided by 2 1/2 is 16/5! I did it!
