I'm having a brain freeze with this problem. I'm checking my son's 7 Gr. pre-algebra homework.and I'm stuck on this . The quotient of 50 and a number is 2. Is 2 the quotient , 50 the dividend and 25 the divisor?

Thomas.

Hi Thomas.

The short answer is yes.

If we parse the sentence syntactically, "the quotient (of 50 and a number) is 2." So the quotient is 2. In english, the phrase "50 and a number" is ambiguous because both sides are equal, but in conventional use in mathematics, the dividend is mentioned before the divisor. The question is a bit ambiguous - a better re-phrasing would be "the quotient of 50 over a number is 2."

So the question is asking "50 divided by what equals 2?"

Stephen La Rocque.>