Math Heuristics for Problem Solving
Primary 3 Division & Basic Model
What is Division in Math?
Division is a mathematical operation that involves splitting a number into equal parts. It is the opposite of multiplication, and is used to find out how many times one number can be divided by another.
For example, if you have 20 apples and you want to split them equally among 4 friends, you can use division to find out how many apples each friend will get. The division equation would be 20 ÷ 4 = 5. This means that each friend will get 5 apples.
In division problems, there are three main components: the dividend, the divisor, and the quotient. The dividend is the number being divided, the divisor is the number the dividend is being divided by, and the quotient is the answer to the division problem.
It’s important to note that division can also involve remainders, which are the numbers left over after the division is complete. For example, if you have 15 apples and you want to divide them equally among 4 friends, you can use division to find out how many apples each friend will get, but there will be 3 apples left over. The division equation would be 15 ÷ 4 = 3 with a remainder of 3. This means that each friend will get 3 apples, and there will be 3 apples left over.
How to Solve Division Questions with Basic Model?
Let's take a look at this Primary 3 word problem example:
What is the least number of circles that must be added to the figure below so that all the circles can be arranged into groups of 4?
Identify the Concept
It is a division question as we need to split a number of circles into 4 equally smaller groups.
Workings Explained
There are 17 circles.
- There are 4 groups of 4 circles with 1 circle remaining (17 ÷ 4 = 4 remainder 1).
- In order to have another group of 4, we need another 3 more circles to add to the remaining 1 circle (4 – 1 = 3).
3 circles are needed.