anybody know an easy method for long decimal division without a calculator. for e.g 0.0678945 / 0.0004567
long decimal division
- Thread starter amilton542
- Start date
someonesdad
- Joined Jul 7, 2009
- 1,583
In the old days when there were no electronic or mechanical calculators, there were basically three ways to do such problems:
1. Do it long hand like you were taught in school. The method works for any numbers.
2. Do it with a slide rule. Gives around 3 significant figures. Only the mantissas are calculated; you need to figure out where the decimal point should be.
3. Do it with logarithms. This is usually faster than long hand and just involves addition and subtraction. With the usually-available tables, could get you around 5 significant figures.
There are a variety of tips and approximations to help get the answer.
The key to help you choose which method to use depends on how many significant figures you want in the answer. It's not very often you need more than 4 or 5, which explains why logarithms were a popular method for centuries.
1. Do it long hand like you were taught in school. The method works for any numbers.
2. Do it with a slide rule. Gives around 3 significant figures. Only the mantissas are calculated; you need to figure out where the decimal point should be.
3. Do it with logarithms. This is usually faster than long hand and just involves addition and subtraction. With the usually-available tables, could get you around 5 significant figures.
There are a variety of tips and approximations to help get the answer.
The key to help you choose which method to use depends on how many significant figures you want in the answer. It's not very often you need more than 4 or 5, which explains why logarithms were a popular method for centuries.
