| Step 1: Set up the division problem in fraction form: |
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| Step 2: Rewrite the problem, eliminating powers of 10: |
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Some division problems involving decimals can look rather complex. However, sometimes, you only need to find an approximate solution. In these cases, you often can save yourself time by using the Heavy Division Shortcut: move the decimals in the same direction and round to whole numbers. For example:
What is 1,530,794 ÷ (31.49 × 104) to the nearest whole number?
| Step 1: Set up the division problem in fraction form: |
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| Step 2: Rewrite the problem, eliminating powers of 10: |
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Step 3: The goal is to get a single digit to the left of the decimal in the denominator. In this problem, you need to move the decimal point backward five spaces. You can do this to the denominator as long as you do the same thing to the numerator. (Technically, what you are doing is dividing top and bottom by the same power of 10: 100,000.)
Now you have the single digit 3 to the left of the decimal in the denominator.
| Step 4: Focus only on the whole number parts of the numerator and denominator and solve. |
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An approximate answer to this complex division problem is 5. If this answer is not precise enough, keep one more decimal place and do long division (e.g., 153 ÷ 31 ≈ 4.9). 
What is the integer closest to
?