Hello all!
We all have used division in our daily lives - no matter how we look at it we use it. Whether it is dividing a dollar into equal increments, an apple into individual slices, or our children into two separate halves of the car. Something that we all have seemingly forgotten how to do is long division. I know I always had trouble in grade school with long division, and after talking to several friends of mine, a lot of them also struggle, nor do they remember how to actually perform the operation. Why would something like this be important to know?
Is it practical?
Long division (although it may seem that it is easier to take out our smart phone, open our calculator app, and punch the numbers in) is still a practical knowledge to have. What if your smart phone has a dead battery? Are you going to walk around aimlessly searching for a calculator or a phone charger? By the time you find one, you may have figured out your division problem, and done a couple of more just for fun and practice! I think that long division is more practical than some of the things we take for granted. We can use it in everything from dividing money for our finances and investments, to engineering problems. For those of us who are studying to manage money or design processes (mechanical, chemical, or electrical), this can prove to be a great tool!
A little review:
The following is a link to a YouTube Video that explains the process of long division. There are several steps to doing the problems, but in reality, the steps are really quite simple. It has taken me nearly 20 years to understand the concept and its' importance, but now I definitely see it!
Long Division Made Easy
Curious about the future of long division?
The following is a link to the website Wikipedia that I found interesting information on. One of the most important things I think we should focus on is the section stating that long division may be a thing of the past. Is this a skill we want to continue teaching to our kids, or are we too technologically dependent to consider it anymore?
Long Division: Wikipedia
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