Long division

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 94 10:09:04 PST
From: Keith Averell
Subject: math

Dear Dr. Math,

     Could you help us with one of our third grade really hard math problems?
Here it is:   7626614/255=?

     Thanks for your help!

          Mr. Averell's third grade class

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 19:50:56 -0500 (EST)
From: Dr. Sydney
Subject: Re: math

Dear Mr. Averall's 3rd Grade Class:

        Thanks for writing to Dr. Math!!  We are glad to hear from you.  Do
you know how to do long division?  Your problem is simpler if you treat it
as a long division problem:

     So, finding 7626614/255 is the same as finding:
         __________   
      255|7626614

Doing long division numbers with numbers that are more than one digit can be
tricky, but not impossible.  How many times does 255 go into 7?  None, so
next we ask how many times does 255 go into 76?  None, so how many times
does 255 go into 762?  AHA!  Not none this time!  255 goes into 762 2 times
with a remainder of 252.  So, we write:

          __2______
      255|7626614
         -510
         ----
          252

Now we bring down the next digit, 6, and repeat the same procedure. How many
times does 255 go into 2526?  Do you see how you would continue?  See if you
can figure out the rest of the problem yourselves, and feel free to write
back if you have any more questions on this or anything else.  Have fun!

--Sydney