Situations in which a collection of objects is separated into several smaller and equal groups predate recorded history. With the advent of arithmetic and number systems, this sort of 'dividing' process was generalized and given precision as an arithmetic operation. That is, division can be defined as an operation performed to determine how many times one quantity is contained in another quantity. For example, the number "2" is contained three times within the number "6". The number of times one number must be added together to yield another number is symbolized by the arithmetic expression "a / b"; with the number "a" called the "dividend", the symbol "b" called the "divisor", and the result called the quotient. So "6 / 2" is a quotient whose value is 3; that is, 2 must be added three times to produce 6. The word quotient is from the Latin "quotiens" for "how many times". In addition to the symbol "/" (diagonal...