Long Division

It frames a written long-division calculation.

The divisor—the number you divide by—sits outside the curve; the dividend—the number being divided—goes under its bar; the answer, or quotient, sits above. A division bracket lays out the work, unlike inline ÷ or /.

By the 12th century, North African mathematician al-Samaw’al was doing decimal calculations that could yield long quotients, before the written algorithm was formalized. Filippo Calandri’s 1491 Italian arithmetic book has an early printed a danda method. The familiar bracket took shape in the 18th century from notation with a left parenthesis. Math software can stretch the bar across the dividend.