Question

The Ruiz family took a summer trip.

In 4 days, they drove 1,600 miles. If they drove an equal
number of miles each day, how many miles did they drive
each day? Describe the basic fact you use to find your
answer and how many zeros you add from the dividend.

Answer 1

400 miles each day

Explanation:

You have 1600 miles divided into four days.

1600 / 4

We can use the basic fact that multiplying a number by ten simply means shifting everything to the left, for example 2 x 10 = 20, we just shifted 2 to the left and inserted a 0.

So for this problem, we can do the same. Divide 1600 by 100, or 10 x 10, then divide by 4.

1600/16 = 100

16/4 = 4.

Now, since we divided by ten twice before, we can get the right answer by multiplying by ten twice.

4 x 10 = 40

40 x 10 = 400