A “quotient” is the answer to a division problem. The Latin word “quotiens,” which means “how many times,” is where this word comes from.
When you divide, you break up a number into equal parts. The number that is split is the dividend. The number of equal groups into which the dividend is divided is the divisor. The number of items in each of the equal groups is the quotient, or answer to the problem.
When you divide one number by another number, you get a quotient. When you divide two positive numbers, the answer is also positive. In the same way, when you divide two negative numbers, you get a positive number. But when you divide a positive number by a negative number, you get a negative number.
A number can never be divided by zero (5/0), because that would mean that a pie with a size of 0 is cut into five equal parts, which is impossible. The answer to a “divided by zero” problem is NOT zero. Instead, the term is that it doesn’t exist (also known as DNE).
But you can divide a number by a bigger number. This operation gives a fraction, a decimal, or a percent as the answer.
