How come 1 divided by 8 equals 0.125?

Answer 1

When you learn to do long division, you'll be able to derive it for yourself.

Until then, all we can say is: It takes higher math to explain why.

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Maybe this will help:

-- When you say "1 divided by 8", it means "take one thing and cut it up in 8 equal pieces".

-- The equation you just stated in your question tells us that each piece will be 0.125 .

-- If it's true, then you ought to be able to put the 8 pieces back together, and get ' 1 '.

-- How do you do that ?

-- Take the size of each piece (0.125), and either add up 8 of them, or else multiply it by 8.

-- If the answer you get is ' 1 ', that confirms that if you cut ' 1 ' into 8 pieces, each piece is 0.125.

Try it and see what you get.