Divide numbers ending in zeroes: word problems

key points

Let’s go through the process with step-by-step explanations:

Problem 1: Sharing Chocolates

Problem: Sarah has 120 chocolates. She wants to divide them equally among 6 friends. How many chocolates will each friend get?

Steps:

1. Write the division problem: ( 120 \div 6 )
2. Ignore the zero and divide the remaining numbers:

• Remove the zero from 120, leaving 12.
• Divide 12 by 6.
• ( 12 \div 6 = 2 )

1. Add the zero back to the quotient:

• Since we divided 12 by 6 and got 2, add the zero back to get 20.

1. Conclusion: Each friend will get 20 chocolates.

Problem 2: Distributing Pencils

Problem: There are 500 pencils in a box. A teacher wants to distribute them equally among 10 students. How many pencils will each student get?

Steps:

1. Write the division problem: ( 500 \div 10 )
2. Ignore the zeroes and divide the remaining numbers:

• Remove one zero from each number, leaving 50 and 1.
• Divide 50 by 1.
• ( 50 \div 1 = 50 )

1. Conclusion: Each student will get 50 pencils.

Problem 3: Packing Books

Problem: A bookstore packs 2,400 books equally into 30 boxes. How many books will be in each box?

Steps:

1. Write the division problem: ( 2,400 \div 30 )
2. Simplify by removing one zero from both the dividend and the divisor:

• Remove one zero from 2,400, leaving 240.
• Remove one zero from 30, leaving 3.

1. Divide the simplified numbers:

• ( 240 \div 3 )
• Divide 240 by 3:
  • 240 divided by 3 is 80.

1. Conclusion: Each box will contain 80 books.

Problem 4: Dividing Apples

Problem: A farmer has 6,000 apples. He wants to pack them into 15 crates equally. How many apples will each crate have?

Steps:

1. Write the division problem: ( 6,000 \div 15 )
2. Simplify the division problem:

• Notice that 6,000 and 15 can both be simplified.
• Divide 6,000 by 15:
  • First, simplify by removing a common factor. In this case, we can divide both by 5 to make it easier:
  • ( 6,000 \div 5 = 1,200 )
  • ( 15 \div 5 = 3 )

1. Divide the simplified numbers:

• Now, we have ( 1,200 \div 3 ).
• Divide 1,200 by 3:
  • 1,200 divided by 3 is 400.

1. Conclusion: Each crate will contain 400 apples.

Recap:

• For each division problem involving numbers ending in zeroes, we simplified the problem by removing the zeroes first.
• Then, we performed the division on the simplified numbers.
• Finally, we added back the appropriate number of zeroes to the quotient, if necessary.

These steps should help 6th grade students understand how to handle division problems involving numbers ending in zeroes.

let’s practice: