Dividend, Divisor, Quotient and Remainder
Division is the process of sharing things into equal groups.
Suppose we have 15 balls and these are to be shared equally into 3 children.
You can see from the following figure that each group has 5 balls. It means each child will get 5 balls.
Division is denoted by the symbol ‘÷’.
So, the statement when 15 balls are shared equally among 3 children, each child will get 5 balls, can be written in division form as: 15 ÷ 3 = 5
In the above division equation, 15 is called dividend, 3 is divisor and 5 is quotient.
Thus,
The number which is to be divided is called the dividend.
The number which divides the dividend is called the divisor.
The result is called the quotient.
The leftover, if any, is called the remainder. Here, no balls are leftover, therefore the remainder is 0.
Division is a repeated subtraction.
Division can be done using repeated subtraction.
Let us divide 15 by 5. Subtract 5 from 15 again and again until you get zero.
Step 1: Subtract 5 from 15.
15–5 = 10
Step 2: Subtract 5 from 10.
10–5 = 5
Step 3: Subtract 5 from 5.
5–5 = 0
We subtracted 3 times.
Thus, 15 ÷ 5 = 3