Natasha and George were asked to find the quotient to the decimal division problem 18.8÷1.6. Natasha says her answer is 11.75. George says his answer is 1.175.

Question

A. Who is correct? Natasha or George?
Be. Explain how you know who is correct. Include your explanation at least one possible error the student who was incorrect made.

Answer 1

To determine who is correct between Natasha and George regarding the division problem \( 18.8 \div 1.6 \), we will perform the calculation:

1. First, we can remove the decimals by multiplying both the numerator and the denominator by 10. This gives us: \[ 18.8 \div 1.6 = 188 \div 16 \]

2. Now, we can perform the division: \[ 188 \div 16 = 11.75 \]

Therefore, the correct answer to \( 18.8 \div 1.6 \) is \( 11.75 \).

A. Who is correct?

Natasha is correct.

B. Explanation and Possible Error

Natasha got the correct answer of \( 11.75 \). George, on the other hand, answered \( 1.175 \), which is incorrect. One possible error George made could be misplacing the decimal point when dividing. For example, he may have performed the division correctly but then incorrectly placed the decimal point, resulting in a number that was off by a factor of ten.

To summarize:

• Natasha's answer: \( 11.75 \) (Correct)
• George's answer: \( 1.175 \) (Incorrect)
• Possible error: George may have miscalculated or misinterpreted the placement of the decimal point after doing the division.