The idea of division

We've got 24 triangle things here, what I want to do in this video is to divide it into different numbers of groups.

So the first thing I want to do is I want to divide this 24 triangle things, I want to divide it into 3 groups,

and think about how many do I end up with per group.

So let's try that out... So I'm going to divide into 3 equal groups.

So that is one equal group right over there... Then I have another equal group right over here... And then I have a third equal group right over here.

So if I divide 24 into 3 equal groups... 1, 2, 3... How many are going to be in each group?

Well we can count that! We have 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... in each group.

So we can say that 24 divided by 3 is equal to 8.

Now you might say, "Hey! This is very similar to what we saw in multiplication!"

In Multiplication, we said, "if we have 3 groups of 8 we can view that as 3 times 8 and get 24."

And you are exactly right!

We could also write that 3 times 8, so if we have 3 groups of 8, then that is going to be equal to 24.

So we started in this video, we had 24 things, we want to divide it into 3 equal groups, we got 8 in each group.

Or you can say 3 equal groups of 8 is equal to 24.

But there's even other ways of thinking about this. (So let me clear this up a little bit)...

So in the first example, I've divided 24 into 3 equal groups... but you can also view 24 divided by 3 as dividing 24 into groups of 3!

So let's think about what that looks like... so if we divide into groups of 3...

Then for example, this is a group of 3. That is a group of 3. This is a group of 3. You might see where this is going...

That's a group of 3... That is another group of 3... We're going to think about how many groups of 3 we're actually going to get...

So, this is another group of 3... and that's another group of 3.

So... how many groups of 3 did we get? Well let's see... we have 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8 groups of 3.

So another way of viewing 24 divided by 3 is divide 24 into groups of 3, and then you will have 8 groups of 3.

And one way of thinking about this... if you want to express the same thing in terms of multiplication...

If you have 8 groups of 3, that is also going to be equal to 24.

Whether you have 3 groups of 8 or 8 groups of 3... either way, you're going to have 24.

Now... let's make things more interesting...

What I want you to think about is:

What is 24 divided by 12? And I encourage you to pause the video, draw out 24 triangles like this, and try to figure out what 24 divided by 12 is.

Well... I assume you have paused the video, and there's two ways to think about 24 divided by 12.

You could say... let's divide 24 into groups of 12, and think about how many groups we have... So we can do that.

So let's see... this is... 1 group of 12 right over here. And then here is another group of 12. So... How many groups of 12 do we have?

Well, we have 2 groups of 12, so we could say 24 divided by 12 is 2.

But another, just as reasonable, way of doing this.... You could have said, "Well... let me divide 24 into 12 groups, instead of groups of 12."

So if I want to divide into 12 groups... 12 equal groups... Well let's see...

So this is 1 equal group... 2 equal groups... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... 9... 10... 11... 12.

So once again, if you say "I'm going to divide 24 into 12 equal groups, how many do you have in each group?"

Well you have 2. So once again 24 can be viewed as 24 divided into 12 equal groups and how many do you have in each group,

or 24 divided into groups of 12, and how many groups would you have? And that's what we saw in the last example.

So now let's make things even more interesting...

I want you to think about a couple of things:

What 24 divided by 6 is...

And I also want you to figure out what 24 divided by 4 is.

Once again, I encourage you to pause the video, draw out these triangles, and figure it out.

What is 24 divided by 6, and 24 divided by 4?

So let's tackle 24 divided by 6 first.

So I'll view this as: let's try divide 24 into 6 equal groups.

So let's see... this could be 1 equal group... 2 equal groups... in fact each group here is a group of 4, and we have 6 rows...

So 3 equal groups, 4... 5... and 6. So if you divide 24 into 6 equal groups, how many do you have in each group?

Well, it's pretty clear: you have 4 in each group.

Another way we could have thought about that... is we could have said, "Let me divide 24 into groups of 6."

So if you divide 24 into groups of 6... You could have viewed it as this:

So that's is 1 group of 6 right there... That's another group of 6 right over here... That's another group of 6... and I think you can see how many groups of 6 we have.

We have 4 groups of 6.

Well, now let's think what 24 divided by 4 is. Well, if I view 24 divided by 4 as taking 24 into 4 equal groups, I've just drawn that!

I have 4 equal groups, and in each group I have 6.

So notice: 24 divided by 6 is 4, and 24 divided by 4 is 6.

And that's because I can view this as 4 groups of 6 (4 times 6 is equal to 24). Or you can just as equivalently say that 6 times 4 is 24.