If the divisor is a decimal then you must multiply by a power of 10 to make it a whole number. Why is it important to multiply the dividend and the divisor by the same power of 10?

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Mathematics

Gilbert Bruce

Today, 17:05

If the divisor is a decimal then you must multiply by a power of 10 to make it a whole number. Why is it important to multiply the dividend and the divisor by the same power of 10?

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Nathalia Ayala · Answer 1

You multiply the divisor and dividend by the same power to keep them within the same ratio of each other.

This applies to non decimal division.

10 / 5 = 2.

If you mutliply both sides by 10 you'd get 100 / 50 which is still 2.

If you only multiplied one side by 10, you could get 100 / 5 which is 20 or 10 / 50 which is 1/5. Both of these mess you the original ratio.