MECHANICAL DIVISION

1
MECHANICAL DIVISION To
demonstrate mechanical division I will show how
to divide the product of the previous
multiplication example, 273, by the examples
multiplicand, 21, so that the examples
multiplier, 13, will be the quotient here. The
divisor 21 is represented by a triangle with
three beads in its base pushed to the left.
Therefore the dividend will be an array of
columns to the right of the divisor oriented down
right as indicated by the down rightward pointing
arrow.
So to configure this array beads are counted down
right beginning with the leftmost bead.Count out
two beads from the first column of three and push
them to the left to represent the two in the
hundreds place of the dividend. One bead will
remain in the column and is carried rightward to
be part of the seven in the tens place. To
complete representing the seven six more bead,
two from each subsequent column, are counted out
and pushed to the left. The bottom bead of the
six positions directly above the one from the
first column to make seven in the tens placed.
Three beads will remain, one from each of the
three columns of which two were taken to make the
array of six. These three beads represent the the
three in the ones place of the dividend.
2
The 27 tens are first divided by 21. Since the 2
hundreds and 1 ten are represented by a single
downright column 27 divided by 21 equals 1. This
array also reveals that 1 times 21, the divisor,
is 21. The difference between 27 and 21 is
given by the 6 tens above the 1 ten. Now
bringing your 3 remaining beads over to represent
the ones leaves 63 to be divided by 21. The 63
is represented by a partition of 3 downright
columns, so 63 divided by 21 equals 3. Since
there are no beads positioned above the 3 ones 3
times 21 must equal 63.