Moving the Decimal Point

Date: 12/04/2002 at 21:57:51
From: Tyler Woxland
Subject: Division  of Two decimals

When you divide two decimals, what is it called when you move the 
decimal point?

Date: 12/05/2002 at 11:28:49
From: Doctor Ian
Subject: Re: Division  of Two decimals

Hi Tyler,

Do you mean when you do something like this?

          ______               ________
   31.45 ) 216.5   ==>   3145 ) 21650.0


There's not really an official name for it, although it might fall
under the category of 'equivalent fractions', since what you're really
doing is this:

  216.5     100     21650
 ------- * ----- = -------
  31.45     100      3145

Does that make sense?

- Doctor Ian, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/