Question

What is 1.2 divided by 24?

Answer 1

Hint: We must form a fraction based on the information given in the question and then simplify by factoring out the common terms. Then we can change this simplified fraction into decimal form. Alternatively, we could simply divide 1.2 by 24.

Complete step-by-step solution:
We know by the definition of fraction that a divided by b is nothing but $\dfrac{a}{b}$.
So, according to this question, 1.2 divided by 24 is nothing but $\dfrac{1.2}{24}$.
Mathematically, 1.2 divided by 24 = $\dfrac{1.2}{24}$
We know that we can multiply any number in both the numerator and denominator without changing the value of our fraction.
So, let us multiply 10 in both numerator and denominator.
1.2 divided by 24 = $\dfrac{1.2\times 10}{24\times 10}$
And thus, we have, 1.2 divided by 24 = $\dfrac{12}{240}$
Let us now cancel the common terms in both numerator and denominator.
Thus, on cancelling by 12, we get
1.2 divided by 24 = $\dfrac{1}{20}$
We know that the fraction $\dfrac{1}{20}$ is equivalent to 0.05.
Thus, 1.2 divided by 24 is 0.05.
Alternatively,
Let us use the division process to evaluate 1.2 divided by 24.
Here, the dividend is 1.2 and the divisor is 24.
But, by our knowledge of the division process, we know that the dividend must always be greater than the divisor.
So, let us multiply our dividend with any number, and then after division, we can divide the quotient with the same number.
Let us take 100 for simplicity. On multiplying 1.2 by 100, we get 120.
So now our dividend is 120 and the divisor is 24.
The division process will look like,
$24\overset{5}{\overline{\left){\begin{align}
  & 120 \\
 & \underline{120} \\
 & 000 \\
\end{align}}\right.}}$
So, we get 5 when 120 is divided by 24. Here, we will need to divide 5 by 100.
Hence, when 1.2 is divided by 24, we get 0.05 as our answer.

Note: We must remember that 1.2 divided by 24 is $\dfrac{1.2}{24}\text{ and not }\dfrac{24}{1.2}$. Also, in the division method, we must not forget to divide the quotient by the same number, here, divide 5 by 100.