What is it?
Division is the act of splitting a numeric quantity into equal parts. The quantity being divided is known as the Numerator, and the number used to divide it is called the Denominator. The result of a division is referred to as the Quotient.
What is the Syntax?
In mathematics, division is denoted by the symbol ÷ (obelus). However, due to the fact that this symbol does not exist on most computer keyboards, computer programs tend to represent division with the slash (/) symbol instead.
The divide operator’s syntax is as follows:
Numerator / Denominator
Why might I want to use this?
- Calculating an equal share of a box of chocolates among a group of children.
- Calculating how many items of a particular size can fit inside a fixed space.
- Calculate the length of a piece of string after folding it in half lengthways.
A baker has a quantity of flour (the numerator, AvailableFlour) and wants to know how many scones he will be able to bake with that flour before he needs to buy more (the quotient, NumberOfScones). The amount of flour he uses per scone (the denominator, SconeFlour) is fixed.
NumberOfScones := AvailableFlour / SconeFlour;
The baker has 500g of flour and uses 25g of flour per scone. He is therefore able to produce 20 scones before he needs to buy more flour.
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