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

Question

a. Who is correct? Natasha or Jorge?
b. Explain how you know who is correct. Include in your explanation at least one possible error the student who was incorrect made.

Answer 1

b. Natasha is correct.

To confirm this, we can actually perform the division:

18.8 ÷ 1.6 = 11.75

Thus, Natasha's answer of 11.75 is correct.

It is possible that Jorge made an error in the decimal placement. Since 1.6 divided into 18.8 results in a quotient larger than 1, the decimal point should move to the right in the quotient. Jorge's answer of 1.175 suggests that the decimal point was moved too far to the left. The correct placement of the decimal would be after the 5, resulting in 11.75.

Answer 2

the bot is always wrong

Answer 3

bot is right

18.8/1.6 = 11.75