Question

In which place should you write the first digit of the quotient 3381 divided 47 how can you determine that without using division

Answer 1

One way to do it is to use estimation. If we say 47 is near to 50 and 3381 is near to 3000 or 4000, we can see what magnitude the answer will be, so let’s take 50 and 3000 to start with. We can drop the last zero of each of these so we get 300÷5=60 so we only have tens and ones. Now let’s see what 50 and 4000 would give us: 80. Once again we only have tens and ones. So that tells us if we divide 3381 by 47 the number will consist of some tens and some ones. The tens digit in 3381 is 8, so we know that the first digit of the quotient must be over the 8. The time you spent reading the explanation I’ve given is longer than the time it would take you do this in your head! If you practice doing estimations like this regularly, you will probably make fewer mistakes. It only takes a few seconds once you get used to the method. Good luck!