Question

What is $5$ divided by $\dfrac{1}{4}$?

Answer 1

Hint: As we can clearly see that the question given requires us to divide $5$ by $\left( {\dfrac{1}{4}} \right)$. Whenever we see a question like this, our approach should be to simplify it. Thus, we need to write it in division format as a complex fraction and then expand and work on it. Then, we write the fraction in the simplest form after cancelling the common factor between numerator and denominator. We should remember the process of finding the multiplicative inverse of a number to solve the given problem.

Complete step by step answer:
In the given problem, we are required to find the quotient when $5$ is divided by the fraction $\left( {\dfrac{1}{4}} \right)$. So, we first write it in fraction format as:$\dfrac{5}{{\left( {\dfrac{1}{4}} \right)}}$. So, we know that the division of a number by a rational number is as good as multiplying the number by the multiplicative inverse of the same rational number.

Multiplicative inverse of a number is the reciprocal of the given number such that the product of both is equal to one.So, the multiplicative inverse of $\left( {\dfrac{1}{4}} \right)$ is $4$. Hence, we multiply the given number $5$ by $4$ to get the desired answer of the given problem.
So, $5 \times 4$
Multiplying the terms to find the product, we get $20$.

Hence, the quotient obtained on division of $5$ by $\left( {\dfrac{1}{4}} \right)$ is $20$.

Note: Numerator and denominator never get cut through while division, they only get cut in multiplication. Also, division of a number by a rational number is as good as multiplying the number by the multiplicative inverse of the same rational number. Lastly, it is good to convert your answer from improper fraction to mixed fraction even if it is not mentioned in the question otherwise. We must take care while doing questions.