Quotient

In arithmetic, a quotient (from lat, quotiens 'how many times', pronounced ) is a quantity produced by the division of two numbers. The quotient has widespread use throughout mathematics, and is commonly referred to as the integer part of a division (in the case of Euclidean division), or as a fraction or a ratio (in the case of proper division). For example, when dividing 20 (the ''dividend'') by 3 (the ''divisor''), the ''quotient'' is "6 with a remainder of 2" in the Euclidean division sense, and $6\tfrac$ in the proper division sense. In the second sense, a quotient is simply the ratio of a dividend to its divisor.

Notation

The quotient is most frequently encountered as two numbers, or two variables, divided by a horizontal line. The words "dividend" and "divisor" refer to each individual part, while the word "quotient" refers to the whole.

$\dfrac \quad \begin & \leftarrow \text \\ & \leftarrow \text \end \Biggr \} \leftarrow \text$

Integer part definition

The quotient is also less commonly defined as the greatest whole number of times a divisor may be subtracted from a dividend—before making the remainder negative. For example, the divisor 3 may be subtracted up to 6 times from the dividend 20, before the remainder becomes negative:
: 20 − 3 − 3 − 3 − 3 − 3 − 3 ≥ 0,
while
: 20 − 3 − 3 − 3 − 3 − 3 − 3 − 3 < 0.
In this sense, a quotient is the integer part of the ratio of two numbers.

Quotient of two integers

A rational number can be defined as the quotient of two integers (as long as the denominator is non-zero).

A more detailed definition goes as follows:

: A real number ''r'' is rational, if and only if it can be expressed as a quotient of two integers with a nonzero denominator. A real number that is not rational is irrational.

Or more formally:
: Given a real number ''r'', ''r'' is rational if and only if there exists integers ''a'' and ''b'' such that $r = \tfrac a b$ and $b \neq 0$.

The existence of irrational numbers—numbers that are not a quotient of two integers—was first discovered in geometry, in such things as the ratio of the diagonal to the side in a square.

More general quotients

Outside of arithmetic, many branches of mathematics have borrowed the word "quotient" to describe structures built by breaking larger structures into pieces. Given a set with an equivalence relation defined on it, a "quotient set" may be created which contains those equivalence classes as elements. A quotient group may be formed by breaking a group into a number of similar cosets, while a quotient space may be formed in a similar process by breaking a vector space into a number of similar linear subspaces.

See also

* Product (mathematics)
* Quotient category
* Quotient graph
*Integer division
* Quotient module
* Quotient object
* Quotient of a formal language, also left and right quotient
* Quotient ring
* Quotient set
* Quotient space (topology)
* Quotient type
* Quotition and partition

References

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Real numbers
Division (mathematics)