Question

How do you solve \[14.4\div 1.2\]?

Answer 1

Hint: Assume the given expression as ‘E’. Now, to divide 14.4 by 1.2, take the reciprocal of 1.2 and multiply it with 14.4. Multiply the numerator and the denominator with 10 to get rid of the decimal point. Cancel the common factors to simplify the product and get the answer.

Complete step by step answer:
Here, we are asked to divide 14.4 by 1.2. So, the dividend is 14.4 and the divisor is 1.2. Let us assume the value of the given expression as ‘E’. So, we have,
\[\Rightarrow E=14.4\div 1.2\]
Now, when we have to divide a number ‘a’ with another number ‘b’ then what we do is, we first take the reciprocal of the number ‘b’ and then multiply it with number ‘a’. To take the reciprocal of a number we divide 1 by that number. For example: - reciprocal of b will be \[\dfrac{1}{b}\].
So, let us come to the question. Taking the reciprocal of 1.2 we get \[\dfrac{1}{1.2}\]. Now, we have to multiply \[\dfrac{1}{1.2}\] with 14.4. So, we get,
\[\begin{align}
  & \Rightarrow E=14.4\times \dfrac{1}{1.2} \\
 & \Rightarrow E=\dfrac{14.4}{1.2} \\
\end{align}\]
Multiplying both the numerator and the denominator with 10 to remove the decimal point, we have,
\[\begin{align}
  & \Rightarrow E=\dfrac{14.4}{1.2}\times \dfrac{10}{10} \\
 & \Rightarrow E=\dfrac{144}{12} \\
\end{align}\]
We know that 144 is the square of 12, so we have,
\[\Rightarrow E=\dfrac{12\times 12}{12}\]
Cancelling the common factor, i.e., 12, from the numerator and the denominator, we get,
\[\Rightarrow E=12\]
Hence, 12 is our answer.

Note:
You may note that the only reason to multiply the numerator and denominator with 10 was to remove the decimal point and make our calculation easy. Sometimes these decimal points may confuse us and make our calculations wrong so it is better to convert them into the exponent of 10. You must know the meaning of reciprocal and how to find reciprocal and how to find reciprocal of a number.