Advanced Math/Division

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Expert: - 8/9/2009


Question
QUESTION: Hello:

The line below is divided into thirds:

2%______3%______4%______5%


What is the line below divided into if one of the percentages is not a whole number? The line is no longer evenly divided.


2%______3%_______4.4%______5%


I thank you for your reply.


ANSWER: There is a difference of 1% between each of the numbers in the first design.
Since 5% - 2% is 3%, it is evenly divided into thirds, just like you said.

Now with the 4.4% the line could still be divided into 3 even sections, but that would not be the correct mathematical way to divide the line.  I have seen it done in Excel when it was told that the x axis was just lablels, but these are numbers.

What you would need to do in this case is count fiths.
2 to 3 is 5 fifths.
3 to 4.4 is 7 fifths.
4.4 to 5 is 3 fifths.

There is still a total of 3, which is 15 fifths, but now the x axis is divided differently.

2 would be at 0 units from the left,
3 would be at 5 units from the left,
4.4 would be at 12 units from the left, and
5 would be at 15 units from the left.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello :

I want to thank you for the reply and answer.

Since the 0.4 in 4.4 is in tenths, can the line also be divided in tenths or count it in tenths?

2 to 5 is 10 tenths
3 to 4.4 is 12 tenths
4.4 to 5 is 8 tenths

The total is 30 tenths which is still 3.

I thank you for your follow-up reply.  

Answer
Note that you've got the right idea.
The first interval is from 2 to 3.  3 - 2 = 1, so there are 10 10ths between 2 and 3.
The next interval is from 3 to 4.4.  4.4 - 3 = 1.4, so there are 14 tenths.
5 - 4.4 = 0.6, so there are 6 tenths between the last two.

Slow down on your math or double check it.

I know, I've made the same kind of error,
even in the over 3,000 questions I've answered in this language.

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