3 Minute Maths

GCSE maths walkthrough videos and worksheets

How to divide numbers

by 141 Comments

Learning how to divide numbers is a really important skill. Learn these, practice them and always keep to the same methods!

There are 6 main numeracy skills that will help with your maths. Click here to read more.

Click here to visit addition skills , subtraction skills , multiplication skills videos.

Learning how to divide numbers is an important area of maths because has its own vocabulary – all these words mean the same thing:

  • divided by
  • quotient of
  • split
  • separated
  • cut up
  • shared equally
  • equal pieces
  • lots of

They all provide clues in a word problem and can help you decide the correct calculation.

There are many similarities between fractions and division as similar terms are used and the / symbol can be used in both cases.

Division is also the opposite – inverse – of multiplication so you really need to know your multiplication tables. There’s also ‘long division’ where a good level of estimation skills are beneficial.

Try your own calculations once you have watched the videos.

Short division using times tables

Short division using bus stop method

Short division with Lol 😀

Short division with Lol – Blooper

Long division using bus stop and fraction method

Long division by decimal bus stop method

Long division using chunking method

Comments

  6. Paul Kelly says

    cheers fella, many thanks…now I can help my daughter with her homework.
    she says “thanks” too 🙂

    Reply

  7. Vin Petrol says

    Thanks so much, I can usually do most things but never division. We’re just
    moving onto dividing & multiplying so I thought I’d quickly learn it!
    Thanks 🙂

    Reply

  13. Sassan Adl says

    Awesome stuff Simon.
    I love math but always was terrible at division (mainly because Irelands
    school system was terrible at teaching it).
    But this is extremely helpful!

    Reply

  22. Joe Holland says

    Thank you for the great video I had homework on bus stop division and I
    forgot how to do it until I found this video

    Reply

  31. Lucy Ratcliffe says

    I’m a student teacher and this video really helped to refresh my memory on
    chunking for teaching my first EVER division lesson to my Year 5 class next
    week! Thank you so much! P.s. you have a lovely smile!

    Reply

  37. e.wilson says

    Simony i really appreciate your hard working and positive attitude towards
    mathematics. You are the only reason i am a athlete, i watch you in the
    evening and in ye morning and you never get boring! keep it up honey boo xx

    Reply

  42. 1SuperKawaii says

    So much easier and faster than the old way, wish they taught it this way
    back in my time. There would have been a lot of less yelling and crying for
    hours at my house.

    Reply

  43. Chloe Walker says

    Great video! Something I actually understood, but could I ask, what is the
    difference between long division and short division? (UK)

    Reply

  44. firedragonosis says

    Phew, I have to go back to school next week and I forgot this method – now
    I’ve seen this it’s all came back to me! Thanks.

    Reply

  46. sasha palmer says

    As someone who finds maths incredibly difficult I find your teaching really
    helpful and easy to understand. I’m teaching myself basic maths at the
    moment but finding it very difficult. I literally don’t know anything.
    Thanks for the videos any advice greatly received.

    Reply

  49. gabriellep89 says

    My primary school teachers tried to teach us this but ended up just
    explaining why it was called the bus stop method, it made no sense. Its
    been so long and I’ve only just learnt it for an exam coming up. I’ve also
    got dyscalculia so that just made it worse! So, thank you!

    Reply

  56. Phoebe Mitchell says

    To all those people going whys it called bus stop, because it looks like
    one of the bus shelters. Derp.

    Reply

  58. Nahshon Lombe says

    I’m in year 11 right now going to do my maths exam in two months
    Working at a B grade going for the A grade in June……
    Really good at problem solving/ most topics but…….. I’m bad at basic
    maths
    Your a Grade saver/ Changer
    or
    Maybe Life Saver

    Reply

  63. Brandon Wilson says

    This guy if officialy epic I cant do long division. When I do my exams soon
    I will be watching all his videos.

    Reply

  69. Shaz J says

    Thanks this helped me teach my nine year old. Its been a long time since I
    did them at school, so it was good revision for me too.

    Reply

  86. jugeds says

    Hi simon I am struggling on an assignment question that asks me to simplify an algebraic fraction using the long division method. The question is 3s4 + 2s2 – 2s – 2 divided by s2 + 1. I would be really grateful if you could help. Thanks

    Reply

  92. Simon Deacon says

    Hi – thanks for the question. 75 as a number is exactly the same as 75.00. It’s generally OK to put 2 or 3 zeros after the decimal point as you’re not really sure how far a decimal calculation will go.
    I hope this helps and all best S

    Reply

  93. clotie100 says

    hi simon thank you for the illastration but how did you get those zeros at the end of 75 and how do you know how many zeros to put there

    Reply

  101. Simon Deacon says

    Hi – thanks for your comment. It’s a difficult question … division is really the opposite of multiplication …. so you could try to help your son practice times tables. It’s always better to say them as ‘one times seven is seven, two times seven is fourteen’ and so on. As you really learn times tables, division (and lots of other maths) will be easier.
    Bus stop and chunking are great methods but both just need practice – 10 minutes every day, on a few questions, can really help.
    All best S

    Reply

  102. virdi871 says

    my son knows chunking method . but he doesent know this method. he is 12 and iam 37 we thinck chunking is easy but my sun is going to be in year 8 . i think my baby boy who is 1 will do well in school my other son says to daddy that its hard. i say well its easy and i shout at him . so what shall i do ? i say to my husband. he says you should do chunking. i said ok then. Please comment to me to tell my son wat to do thank you

    Reply

  104. Eleftheria Panayiotou says

    absolutely helped me & made me get higher in my SAT’s much better than my teacher(pls reply too!)

    Reply

  115. Simon Deacon says

    Hi – yes, when I’m teaching this, it’s as much to do with estimation and multiplication. Students really need to be good at both to use this method effectively 🙂

    Reply

  116. chambos69 says

    sort of, but you’re still left with a tricky question such as how many 14’s are in 119! with chunking you could use comfy numbers… still, it’s rare that it doesnt work! thanks!

    Reply

  117. Simon Deacon says

    Hi – Using this method the first division is ‘how many lots of 9 is there in 8?’ The answer is 0 with 8 left over – some people put the zero above the 8 to remind themselves.

    So my next question would be ‘how many lots of 9 are there in 87?’ Answer 9 with 6 left over. The 6 then continues onto the 0 after the decimal point – then how many lots of 9 out of 60, 6 remainder 6 etc…

    The answer is 9.6666666.

    With 119/14 – first question is how many lots of 14 in 119 …..

    Hope this helps 🙂

    Reply

  118. chambos69 says

    This is a great method, one we used to do as children. I’m a maths co-ordinator at a primary school and it looks like we’re going to go back down this route at the request of Mr.Gove… My problem is this – how does it work when a number doesn’t divide into another number at all using the ‘bus stop’ method. E.g. 87/9 or 119/14? People seem to keep dodging this one! I’m hoping you can shed some light onto it for me!

    Reply

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