\nI used short division back in my May 4, 2013 post about finding square roots and cube roots.<\/a> I didn’t explain the process then, though I did show it. Now, I’ll give an explanation.<\/p>\n
Short division is great, especially for one-digit division. Here’s an example:<\/p>\n
Calculate 70101\u00f73.<\/strong><\/p>\n Solution: To use short division, you’ll likely rewrite the question as <\/p>\n Now, proceed as follows:<\/p>\n Start by asking yourself, like you would with long division, how many times 3 goes into 7. It goes in twice with one left over. Write the 2 below the 7. Then, put the 1 behind the 7 like so:<\/p>\n Now, the 1 with the zero behind it makes a “10”. Ask yourself how many times 3 goes into 10. It goes three times, with 1 left over. Write the 3 below the zero of the 10. Write the 1 in front of the next number, also (in this case) a 1:<\/p>\n Now, ask yourself how many times 3 goes into 11. It’s three times, with 2 left over. Write the 3 under the ones digit of the 11; write the 2 in front of the next number, the second 0.<\/p>\n We imagine now that the 2 with the zero behind it forms 20. We ask how many times 3 goes into 20? The answer is 6 times, with 2 left over. We write the 6 under the 0, the 2 in front of the next number, which is the 1:<\/p>\n Finally, we ask how many times 3 goes into 21. The answer is 7, with 0 left over. We write the 7 below the 1. Since there are no more numbers left, the remainder is 0:<\/p>\n Observations:<\/p>\n 1) It definitely helps to use a different color to work the question from the one it’s written in.<\/p>\n 2) Short division might be less prone to errors than long, because there is so much less to write down.<\/p>\n There are still a couple more points to mention about short division. We’ll visit them in a future post:)<\/p>\n![](\"\/..\/shrtdiv0.png\")
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