Place Value Practice: Breaking 40 into Units and Tens

To solve this problem, we'll follow these steps:

• Step 1: Recognize the problem asks to break down the number 40 into units and tens.
• Step 2: Utilize the place value system in base-10 arithmetic.
• Step 3: Perform the division of 40 by 10 to find how many tens are present.

Now, let's work through each step:

Step 1: The number 40 is expressed in the base-10 system which uses tens and units for decomposition.

Step 2: In the place value system, every digit represents a power of 10. For the number 40, we have:

$40 = 4 \times 10 + 0 \times 1$

Step 3: Divide 40 by 10 to find the number of tens:

$\frac{40}{10} = 4$

With zero remaining, indicating no additional 'units' beyond tens are present:

Therefore, the number 40 can be broken down into 4 tens.