oh my god I cant believe it - never thought i couldnt count!

Hi folks, ive been searchin the web lookin for help with my lack of arithmetical skills and finally found this site - an oasis within calculation nightmares!
Anyway, my problem is simple yet to me incomprehensible. ehem...
Im starting uni in a few weeks to study biology after 2 years of college and I have learned in that time I cant manipulate numbers in what is relatively simple problems. For example, if a car does 45mpg and travels 600 miles, experience tells me i divide 600 by 45, however i do not understand the mechanics of this and cannot apply it to similar type problems in my case molarity or radioactivity.
How do I decide if it is a division problem or a multiplication problem and how do I choose which numbers are divided or multiplied?
Any help for this total idiot would be gratefully received!
Thanx
Allasse

Re: oh my god I cant believe it - never thought i couldnt co

allasse said:

For example, if a car does 45mpg and travels 600 miles, experience tells me i divide 600 by 45, however i do not understand the mechanics of this....

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Are you saying you do not understand WHY 600 is divided by 45?

yep, afraid so! Problem is I have only primary school maths so I struggle with numbers as unlike language, I have no intuition on how math works.
didnt post back right away cos a bit mortified!

allasse said:

yep, afraid so! Problem is I have only primary school maths so I struggle with numbers as unlike language, I have no intuition on how math works.
didnt post back right away cos a bit mortified!

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Don't be "mortified"; I run the 100yard dash in an hour or so (!) while
Donovan Bailey ran that in less than 10 seconds...I'm not mortified

If 2 apples cost 50 cents, then 1 apple costs 25 cents, right?
So you've divided 50 by 2 to get 25 ... it's all that simple

Have you tried looking at division as the opposite of multiplication?

5 times 4 = 20
20 divided by 4 = 5

Thanks for your help - I mostly get it with day to day stuff and embarrasingly didnt appreciate division is the same as multiplication, but get totally confusticated when it comes to more complex problems of the same ilk. My nemesis is solutions - working out whether its the number of moles or the number of litres or the number of grams or the concentration and to my eyes its just a bunch of numbers that mean nothing pictorally in my head so I think Im numberlexic! Basically if there is a worded problem I have no idea where to start. Its the same idea as the speed time distance - 3 variables. Any thoughts as to how I could approach this (apart from dropping out or a brain transplant!)