- Divisibility rules are essential to know that a number is divisible by another number or not.
- With the help of these rules, we can identify the factors of a number.
- Every multiple of a number is divisible by that number.
For example:
4, 6, 8,.... are multiples of 2, so, they are all divisible by 2.
- For one digit numbers and small numbers of two digits, we can easily figure out by which number it is divisible.
For example:
For numbers like, 2, 4, 9, 12 etc, it is easy to know that by which numbers they are divisible.
- But for large numbers, it is not so easy.
- To solve these types of problems, we need divisibility rules.
Divisibility by 2
- A number is divisible by 2 if the last digit is zero or an even number like 2, 4, 6 or 8.
- All even numbers are divisible by 2 because they are all multiples of 2 and zero is also divisible by 2.
Examples:
- Consider the number 246 and notice its last digit which is 6. Here 6 is an even number. So, it is divisible by 2.
- Number 250 is divisible by 2 as its last digit is zero which is divisible by 2.
- Number 145 is not divisible by 2 as its last digit is 5 which is not an even number.
A multiple that is common in two or more numbers is called common multiple.
For Example:
Here, \(6,\, 12,\, 18\,...\) are common among the multiples of both 2 and 3.
Thus, the common multiples of 2 and 3 \(=6,\, 12,\, 18\,...\)
A number is divisible by 3 if the sum of all the digits is a multiple of 3.
For example:
- Consider the number: 2451
The sum of all the digits of the number = 2 + 4 + 5 + 1 = 12
- The sum is 12, which is a multiple of 3. So, the number 2451 is divisible by 3.
2. Consider another number: 5324
The sum of all the digits of the number = 5 + 3 + 2 + 4 = 14
- The sum is 14, which is not a multiple of 3. So, the number 5324 is not divisible by 3.
Case:
- If the number has too many digits then there is quite a possibility that the sum of all the digits is large.
- In that case, take that sum as a new number and repeat the process.
For example:
- Consider the number: 996897
The sum of all the digits = 9 + 9 + 6 + 8 + 9 + 7 = 48
48 is also a big number, so we can take it as a new number and then repeat the process.
48 = New number
The sum of all the digits = 4 + 8 = 12
12 is a multiple of 3, so the original number is also divisible by 3.
2. Consider the number: 6896756
The sum of all the digits = 6 + 8 + 9 + 6 + 7 + 5 + 6 = 47
Take 47 as a new number and repeat the process.
47 = New number
The sum of all the digits = 4 + 7 = 11
11 is not a multiple of 3, so the original number is not divisible by 3.
- A multiple is a product of a quantity and a whole number.
For example:
Multiples of \(2\) can be represented by a product of \(2\) and the whole numbers.
Multiples of \(2=2×\text{whole numbers}\)
\(1^{st}\) Multiple of \(2=2×1=2\)
\(2^{nd}\) Multiple of \(2=2×2=4\)
\(3^{rd}\) Multiple of \(2=2×3=6\)
\(4^{th}\) Multiple of \(2=2×4=8\)
\(5^{th}\) Multiple of \(2=2×5=10\)
and so on.
- Thus, the multiples of \(2\) are \(2,\;4,\;6,\;8,\;10\,...\)
A number is divisible by 4 if
- Case I:
- The last two digits of the number are a multiple of 4.
- For example:
- Consider the number 5824, the last two digits are 24 which is a multiple of 4, so the number 5824 is divisible by 4.
- Consider another number 5825, the last two digits of this number are 25 which is not a multiple of 4, so 5825 is not divisible by 4.
- Case II:
- A number is divisible by 4 if the last two digits of that number are 00.
- For example:
- Consider the number 3200, the last two digits are 00. So, the number is divisible by 4.