Integer Division

Problem: Mrs. Jenson owes $8,000 on her car loan. Each of her 4 children is willing to pay an equal share of this loan. Using integers, determine how much money each of her children will pay.

Solution: Owing $8,000 can be represented by ^–8,000. We must divide ^–8,000 by 4 in order to solve this problem. However, we need rules for dividing integers in order to continue.

Rule 1: The quotient of a positive integer and a negative integer is a negative integer.

Rule 2: The quotient of two negative integers or two positive integers is a positive integer.

We can now use Rule 1 to solve the problem above arithmetically:   ^–8,000 ÷ ⁺4 = ^–2,000. Each of Mrs. Jenson’s four children will pay $2,000. Let’s look at some more examples of dividing integers using the above rules.

Example 1: Find the quotient of each pair of integers.

Example 2: Find the quotient of each pair of integers.

Example 3: Find the quotient of each pair of integers.

Summary: The quotient of a positive integer and a negative integer is a negative integer, and the quotient of two negative integers or two positive integers is a positive integer.

Exercises

Directions: Read each question below. Click once in an ANSWER BOX and type in your answer; then click ENTER. After you click ENTER, a message will appear in the RESULTS BOX to indicate whether your answer is correct or incorrect. To start over, click CLEAR.