mathnumber-systems

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


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.


Solution

  • 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.