Question

What 1.5 divided into 3?

Answer 1

Hint: First we will understand the meaning of the term ‘divided into’ and its difference with the term ‘divided by’. Now, we will assume 1.5 divided into 3 is x. To find the value of x we will consider 3 as the dividend, 1.5 as the divisor and simplify it to get the answer.

Complete step by step answer:
Here we have been asked to find the value of 1.5 divided into 3. As you may see here we have the term ‘divided into’ and not ‘divided by’. Let us understand the difference between the two terms.
Now, if we say x divided into y it means that we need to find how many parts of x can be fit in y. To find we divide y with x that means y is dividend and x is divisor. However, if we have the sentence x divide by y that means we have to divide x with y considering x as the dividend and y as the divisor.
Let us come to the question. We have 1.5 divided into 3 which means we have to find how many parts of 1.5 will be there in 3. Let us assume this part as x. So, this will be equivalent to the relation:
$\Rightarrow x={\displaystyle \frac{3}{1.5}}$
Multiplying the numerator and the denominator with 10 to remove the decimal part we get,
$\begin{array}{rl}& \Rightarrow x={\displaystyle \frac{3}{1.5}}\times {\displaystyle \frac{10}{10}}\\ & \Rightarrow x={\displaystyle \frac{30}{15}}\\ & \therefore x=2\end{array}$

Hence, 1.5 divided into 3 is 2.

Note: This question is somewhat confusing as you may think that the sentence in the question says we are dividing 1.5 into three parts and so the answer should be 0.5. However, it is not mentioned that we are dividing 1.5 into parts so it would be better if you will go with the approach used in the above solution.