Okay, so today I was messing around with some basic math, specifically division, and I got stuck on this seemingly simple problem: 4 divided by 1/5. It looked easy, but my brain kinda froze for a second.
First, I tried to visualize it. I thought, “Okay, I have 4 whole things… pizzas, let’s say. And I need to divide them by one-fifth.” My initial thought was to somehow cut those pizzas into fifths, but that felt like it was going in the wrong direction. I was dividing by a fraction, not dividing into fractions.
Then, I remembered something my old math teacher used to drill into our heads: “Dividing by a fraction is the same as multiplying by its reciprocal.” I have to admit, it took me a minute to even remember what “reciprocal” meant. It is basically flipping the fraction upside down, right?
So, I flipped the 1/5 to become 5/1, which is just 5. Now the problem transformed from 4 divided by 1/5 to 4 multiplied by 5. Way easier!
- Original Problem: 4 ÷ (1/5)
- Find the Reciprocal: The reciprocal of 1/5 is 5/1 (or just 5).
- Change to Multiplication: 4 x 5
Finally, something I could do in my head without breaking a sweat! 4 multiplied by 5 is 20.
My Result
So, 4 divided by 1/5 equals 20. It felt good to finally get it, even if it took a little bit of thinking and remembering some old math rules. I guess those things actually stick with you, huh? It’s also kind of cool how a problem that seems confusing at first can become so simple once you apply the right trick.
