In mathematics, especially in elementary arithmetic, division is an arithmetic operation which is the inverse of multiplication.
Specifically, if c times b equals a, written:
where b is not zero, then a divided by b equals c, written:
For instance,
since
- .
In the above expression, a is called the dividend, b the divisor and c the quotient.
Division by zero (i.e. where the divisor is zero) is not defined.
Read more about this topic: Elementary Arithmetic
Famous quotes containing the word division:
“For in the division of the nations of the whole earth he set a ruler over every people; but Israel is the Lord’s portion: whom, being his firstborn, he nourisheth with discipline, and giving him the light of his love doth not forsake him. Therefore all their works are as the sun before him, and his eyes are continually upon their ways.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus 17:17-9.
“O, if you raise this house against this house
It will the woefullest division prove
That ever fell upon this cursed earth.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“That crazed girl improvising her music,
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,
Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling she knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship
Her knee-cap broken.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)