How many widgets can you buy for $40 if each widget costs $2.50

Question

anonymous · Answer

How many times will 2.50 go into 40?

mathstudent55 · Answer

This is a division problem.

anonymous · Answer

so this is a division problem my friend told me it was suppose to be a fraction problem

pooja195 · Answer

$$\huge~\rm~2.50\div40$$

pooja195 · Answer

Its not a fraction problem unless she meant
2.50/40 
still means to divide

mathstudent55 · Answer

A fraction means division, so, in this case, a division problem and a fraction problem are different terms for the same method of solving the problem.

mathstudent55 · Answer

@pooja195: You wrote $~\rm~2.50\div40$

You must be careful how you write a division.

In this problem you need 
40 divided by 2.50, also called (in English)
2.50 divided into 40.

What you wrote is 
2.50 divided by 40, also called
40 divided into 2.50, 
which is not correct in this problem.

The division below is what you need to do:

$\dfrac{$40}{$2.50} = $40 \div $2.50$