# Long division notation (census of nations)

The Wikipedia article on long division explains the different notations. I still use the European notation I learned in elementary school in Colombia. I had difficulty adapting to the US/UK notation when I moved to the US. However, I did enjoy seeing my classmates' puzzled faces in college whenever we had a professor that preferred the European notation.

What long division notation do you use and where did you learn it?

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This should probably be community wiki – Arturo Magidin Oct 17 '10 at 23:37
I flagged this post for moderation attention since I don't have enough reputation to mark it as a community wiki. – Jaime Soto Nov 17 '10 at 22:04

I use the same one that is used in the U.S.; it is the one that is (or at least, was up until the 80s) taught in Mexico. I had some classmates in high school who had emigrated form Argentina: they used the one described in the Wikipedia article as "European", not the one described as "Latin America". (I'll also note that beginners in Mexico would write the full computation as described in "US notation"; doing the computation mentally was more an 'advanced shortcut' than part of the notation, as I remember).

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In Israel I was taught (in the 90's) the US notation, with the divisor on the right (might have something to do with the fact that we write Hebrew right to left).

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US notation - which is taught in Australia

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This is so interesting, especially the idea of language dictating direction! I grew up in Argentina and attended a bilingual school...so I learned both European and US notation but am stronger in the US because we used it more often. Now I'm teaching language and will do a lesson on the different "formats" for simple math. Gracias a todos!

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Just a curiosity: in which language do you make the calculations? – Américo Tavares Nov 18 '10 at 22:10