Lesson 2: Divisibility and Division Tricks
- Divisibility
To check if a number can be divided by a number, you can do long division or you can use
rules. In this module, we will be learning the rules from 2 – 12.
The simplest are 2, 5 and 10. Check for:
2 If the number is even
5 If the number ends in 5 or 0
10 If the number ends in 0
Next are 3, 9, 4 and 8.
3 If the number’s digits add up to 3 or a multiple of 3
4 If the last two digits of the number are a multiple of 4
8 If the last three digits of the number are a multiple of 8
9 If the number’s digits add up to 9 or a multiple of 9
Next are 6 and 12.
6 If the number can be divided by 3 and 2
12 If the number can be divided by 3 and 4
And finally, 7 and 11, which are quite cumbersome to work out.
7 Double the last digit of the number and subtract it from the remaining digits. If
the result is a multiple, it can be divided by 7.
11 From the right, add the odd digits and even digits separately, and subtract the
results. If the answer is 0 or a multiple of 11, it can be divided by 11.
Those last two are the most confusing, so here are examples.
Is 1757 divisible by 7? Doubling 7 gives you 14, and 175 – 14 = 161, but we’re not sure that
161 is divisible by 7, so we do it again. 1 doubled is 2 and 16 – 2 = 14. Since the result is
divisible by 7, 1757 is also divisible by 7.
Is 1928 divisible by 11? From the right 1+2 and 9+8 are the sets. 1 and 2 make 3, 9 and 8
make 17. 3 from 17 is 14. Since the result is not divisible by 11, 1928 isn’t either.
Practice Set 1
Determine the numbers from 2-12 that can the divide the ff.
1. 384 6. 1029
2. 394 7. 586
3. 182 8. 912
4. 192 9. 580
5. 283 10. 199
- Division Tricks
I will introduce 2 tricks to you in this module.
The first trick I want to show is called “mental splitting”. I want you to focus on the first 2
leftmost digits. Then, find a number that is divisible by the divisor, then subtract and keep
doing this until you get the answer.
Let’s try 2948 divided by 6.
First, let’s focus on 29. 24 is the closest multiple, so we record 4 is the first digit and take 24
from 29 to get 548. Next 54 is divisible by 6. So next we record 9 as the second digit and get
49 and then we move on to the 8. The closest multiple is 6 and so we record 491 as the
answer and 2 as the remainder.
We can visualize it like this.
29 48 ()
24 54 8 ()
00 54 8 (4)
00 00 8 (49)
00 00 6 r2 (491)
The next trick is compensation which is a mental math trick where you adjust the number
you’re dividing (the dividend) to a number that’s easier to work with, which is usually a nice,
round number and then correct the answer by adding or subtracting the extra part you used
to make it easier. Let’s try 1920 by 5.
2000:5=400
2000-1920=80
80=50+30
50:5=10, 30:5=6
400-10-6=384
Practice Set 2
Solve by mental splitting and compensation. Show your work.
1. 2209 / 7
2. 1920 / 6
3. 2039 / 9
4. 1690 / 8
5. 2109 / 3
