How do you divide 66,253÷317?

2 Answers
Feb 4, 2017

The quotient is 209.

Explanation:

(PART 1)

66253 is the dividend, 317 is the divisor, and the answer is the quotient.

To make things easy and neat, we will construct the long division symbol or the division bracket.
31766253

First, we will divide 317 by the first three digits of our dividend which is 662.

317 66253

Now, we ask ourselves a question: "how many 317's can we get from 662?". By the process of trial-and-error, we find out that we can get at least 2 317's from 662. 654 is not "exactly 662" but it is the closest number to 662. Multiplying 317 by either 1 or 3 will not give us the closest answer.
3171=317
317 * 2 = 634
3173=951

2 is the first digit of our quotient. Put 2 on top of the dividend and align it on the third digit of the dividend. Alignment of the numbers, especially that of the quotient, is important. (Please don't mind the little dots and dashes; they are not part of the solution.)
................2
31766253

We are not done yet; that was just the first step. Multiply 2 by 317. The product, which is 634, will be written underneath 662.
................2
31766253
...........634_ _

Feb 4, 2017

The quotient is 209.

Explanation:

(PART 2)

Now, subtract 634 from 662. The answer is 28. Write it underneath 634.
................2
31766253
...........634_ _
.............28

Oh, and bring down the 5 of the dividend to the difference to get the new number 285.
................2
31766253
...........634_ _
.............285

Now, we are back to the first step. How many 317's can we get from 285? The answer is "none" so we instead put 0 next to the 2.
................20
31766253
...........634_ _
.............285

Repeat the rest of the steps: multiplying 0 by 317, then subtracting 0 from 285, then bringing down 3 to the difference. We repeat these steps until "all digits have been processed and no remainder is left".
................20
31766253
...........634 _
.............285
..................0

.............2853

For the third time, repeat the rest of the steps: multiplying 9 by 317, then subtracting 2853 from 2853 to get 0. We now know that the solution is complete to give us 209 as the quotient.
................209
31766253
...........634 _
.............285
..................0

.............2853
.............2853_
....................0

(It's a long explanation but I hope it helps greatly.)
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/long_division