I ask this in relation to ” /(x/y) ” = ” *(y/x) ”
My mathematical ignorance does not allow me to perceive exactly what it is that confuses me about these manoeuvres and so perhaps my question is vague.
I have no difficulty with it as a technique; as something through which I can put an expression, and out at the other end the right result will appear. What I am trying to understand is *why it works*, contrasted with remembering it as a kind of magical spell.
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**EDIT:**
It was very rewarding for me to read all of your comments. Thank you most kindly for enlightening me.
For those interested in the cause of my previous confusion:
The gaps in my understanding of going from y*x=z to y=z/x were definitions of the equal sign and division.
I can see now that I previously considered the = sign to mean «result» or «answer» in some sort of final sense, like a conclusion; I now see that it only states that this is equal to that.
Following this fundamental piece of knowledge, I can belatedly understand what an equation is. From there, via the definition of division as the opposite of multiplication, I can see that if I divide something while also multiplying it with the same number, these actions cancel each other out.
And so the magical spell between y*x=z and y=z/x is the logic above expressed mathematically as x/(y*x)=z/x.
In: 25
I think this is one I can actually explain to a five-year old! Multiplication is basically a quick way to tally the total of similar groups. Say you have four groups with five people in each: mathematically you would express that as 4 * 5 (4 groups * 5 people) and that equals 20 people in total.
Now, dividing is the opposite of that: You split a large number into smaller groups. So imagine that you have a large group of 20 people, and want to split them into 4 groups. This process would be expressed as 20 / 4 (20 people divided into 4 groups), how many people end up in each group? That’s right, 5 people.
Does that make it clear?
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