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:
“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)
“Don’t order any black things. Rejoice in his memory; and be radiant: leave grief to the children. Wear violet and purple.... Be patient with the poor people who will snivel: they don’t know; and they think they will live for ever, which makes death a division instead of a bond.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Major [William] McKinley visited me. He is on a stumping tour.... I criticized the bloody-shirt course of the canvass. It seems to me to be bad “politics,” and of no use.... It is a stale issue. An increasing number of people are interested in good relations with the South.... Two ways are open to succeed in the South: 1. A division of the white voters. 2. Education of the ignorant. Bloody-shirt utterances prevent division.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)