The model of division that refers to fair shares is partitive division.
Understanding Partitive Division
Partitive division, also known as fair-share or sharing division, focuses on dividing a total quantity into a known number of groups to determine the size of each group. The emphasis is on distributing items equally, resulting in fair shares.
- Concept: Dividing a whole into equal parts.
- Goal: To find the size of each share when the number of shares is known.
Examples of Partitive Division
Here are a few examples to illustrate partitive division:
- Sharing Candy: You have 20 candies to share equally among 5 friends. How many candies does each friend get? (20 ÷ 5 = 4 candies per friend)
- Distributing tasks: A team of 4 people needs to complete 12 tasks. If each team member is assigned an equal share of the workload, how many tasks will each person be responsible for? (12 ÷ 4 = 3 tasks per person)
- Dividing resources: A farmer has 30 acres of land and wants to divide it into 6 equal sections for different crops. How many acres will be allocated to each crop? (30 ÷ 6 = 5 acres per crop)
Key Characteristics
- The total quantity is known.
- The number of groups or shares is known.
- The size of each group or share is unknown and needs to be calculated.
- The goal is to distribute the total quantity equally among the groups.
