Unit 4, Lesson 1
Size of Divisor and Size of Quotient
Grade 6
1.2
Activity
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Here are several types of objects. For each type of object, estimate how many are in a stack that is 5 feet high. Be prepared to explain your reasoning.
Cardboard boxes
Egg cartons
Notebooks
Coins
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A stack of books is 72 inches tall. Each book is 2 inches thick. Which expression tells us how many books are in the stack? Be prepared to explain your reasoning.
Student Lesson Summary
Here is a division equation: . In this equation, we call 60 the dividend and 4 the divisor. We call the result of the division, 15, the quotient.
We don’t always have to make calculations to have a sense of what a quotient will be. We can reason about it by looking at the size of the dividend and the divisor. Let’s look at some examples.
The divisor, 9, is very close to 10. We know that is 2, so is a little more than 2.
The dividend, 99, is very close to 101. Because is 1, is a little less than 1.
The divisor, 98, is very close to 100. We know that is or 0.05, so is around 0.05.
In general:
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When a larger number is divided by a smaller number, such as or , the quotient is greater than 1.
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When we divide two numbers that are nearly equal to each other, such as or , the quotient is close to 1.
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When a smaller number is divided by a larger number, such as or , the quotient is less than 1.
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