How to Divide by 0.5

A quick way to divide by 0.5 or ½ is to double the number (or multiply number by 2). The reason for this is that two halves go into a whole. If you still can’t see why you double the number, just think about an easy example, such as, 3 ÷ 0.5. Go through your multiples of 0.5 until you reach 3:

0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3...

As you can see 3 is the 6^th multiple of 0.5, so the answer to 3 ÷ 0.5 is 6.

Another thing to remember is that when you divide by a decimal between 0 and 1 the answer is larger than the number that you started off with.

Let’s look at some harder questions that involve dividing by 0.5:

Example 1

Work out the answer to 26 ÷ 0.5.

All you need to do is double the number, as dividing by 0.5 is the same as multiplying by 2:

26 ÷ 0.5 = 26 × 2 = 52.

Example 2

Work out the answer to 57 ÷ 1/2:

Again all you need to do is double the original number, as dividing by ½ is the same as multiplying by 2:

57 ÷ ½ = 57 × 2 = 114.

Example 3

Find the value of 428 ÷ 0.5:

Again, double the number you are dividing:

428 + 428 = 856.

Example 4

Work out an estimate to 726.854 ÷ 0.478.

When carrying out an estimate round all the numbers off to 1 significant figure:

726.854 = 700

0.478 = 0.5

All you need to do now is work out 700 ÷ 0.5. Just like the last 3 examples this can be done by multiplying 700 by 2:

700 ÷ 0.5 = 700 × 2 = 1400.

So an estimate to the calculation 726.854 ÷ 0.478 is 1400.

Example 5

How many pieces of wood 0.5m long can be cut from a plank of wood of length 9m.

Here you need to work out how many 0.5’s go into 9:

9 ÷ 0.5 = 9 × 2 = 18

So 18 pieces of wood can be cut from the plank of wood.

Questions & Answers

Question: What is 28 x 0.5?

Answer: When multiplying by 0.5, you half the number, so 28 divided by 2 is 14.

Question: What is 2.5 divided by 0.5?

Answer: When dividing by a half (0.5) just double the number. So 2.5 doubled is 5.

Question: What is 0.05 x 500?

Answer: Convert 0.05 to a fraction to give 1/20. So you just need to divide 500 by 20, to give 25.

Question: What when divided by 50 gives you 2.5?

Answer: Just multiply 2.5 by 50 to give 125.

Question: What is 2.0 divided by 0.50?

Answer: When dividing by 0.5 just double the number.

So 2 + 2 is 4.

Question: How to Divide by 0.3?

Answer: Convert 0.3 to a fraction which is 3/10.

Now multiply the number by 10 and divide by 3.

Question: What is 15 divided by 0.5?

Answer: When dividing by one-half double the number.

15 multiplied by 2 is 30.

Question: what is 0.0067 divided by 0.5?

Answer: Just add 0.0067 to 0.0067 to give 0.0134 (or multiply 0.0067 by 2).

Just remember dividing by 0.5 is the same as multiplying by 2.

Question: What is 2 divided by 0.5?

Answer: The number will double when dividing by 0.5.

So 2 divided by 0.5, is the same as 2 doubled which is 4.

Question: What is 0.5 divided by 2?

Answer: This will give you 0.25, unless you meant 2 divided by 0.5 which is 4.

Question: What is 128 divided by 0.25?

Answer: 0.25 is 1/4, so dividing by 0.25 will be the same as multiplying by 4.

The answer will be 512.

Question: What is 16 divided by 0.5?

Answer: Just multiply by 2 when you need to divide by 0.5, so 16 times 2 is 32.

Question: What is 200 divided by 0.5?

Answer: Just double 200 to give 400, as dividing by 0.5 is the same as multiplying by 2.

Question: 12 x something = 0.5, what is the number?

Answer: You will need to divide 0.5 by 12 to give 1/24 (or 0.0417 to 3 significant figures).

Question: What do you get if you double 25?

Answer: To double 25 add the number to itelf, so 25 + 25 gives 50.

Alternatively, you can multiply 25 by 2 to give 50.