• hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 months ago

    X/0.5 = X*2

    Division by less than 1 is essentially multiplying with extra steps

    • Paradachshund@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      Huh, thanks for the insight. I’ve never been able to get my head around weird division like this, and that sounds like a great rule of thumb for thinking about it.

      • TastehWaffleZ@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Dividing by a fraction is the same as flipping one it on its head and multiplying it.

        0.25/0.5 is (1/4)/(1/2)

        To multiply it we’d flip one, either works but for this example I decided to flip the second one: (1/4) * (2/1)

        The top half of the fractions (numerators) multiply together, then the bottoms (denominators) multiply together. (1*2)/(4*1) = 2/4 which reduces to 1/2

        • PhobosAnomaly
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          8 months ago

          I learned this one weird trick (maffemetishuns hate him!!!) a few years back when I went back to education and honestly it revolutionised how I looked at fraction division.