Hey fellow mathematicians. Welcome to the podcast where Math is Figure-Out-Able. I'm Pam.
And I'm Kim.
And this episode is a MathStratChat episode. What is MathStratChat? Well, every Wednesday evening, I throw in a math problem on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, everywhere we can think of on social media. People from around the world chat about the strategies they use. It is super cool to see everyone's thinking.
Okay, so this Wednesday, our math problem was 4896 divided by 96. How would you solve this problem? Pause the podcast. Solve the problem any way you want. The problem is 4896 divided by 96. Solve it, then come on back to hear how we solved it.
All right. So Kim, today, you get to go first. How would you solve 4896 divided by 96?
Okay, so I gotta be honest with you. I don't love the numbers. So, I am thinking about scaling down or finding an equivalent problem.
Okay.
And so I, I know, I see the 48, the 96, the 96, like, kind of just of those pieces. So I'm going to scale down or divide by three and get 1632 divided by 32. And I know, I don't really know why to be perfectly honest.
That would so not be on my repertoire. Okay, that's cool. I like it.
Thank you. So then I see.
Oh, I like that. I'm sorry, I totally had to think about whether 4896 divided by three was actually 1632. And it is Okay, keep going.
So then I think about the fact that I know that 1600 divided by 32 is 50. And then I just have 32 divided by 32, which is one and so the answer is 51.
Nice. Nice. That is super cool. Cool. Not how I thought about it at all.
Okay, well tell us what you did.
Cool. So I saw 48 hundred and 96. And I kind of ignored the 96, actually. And I thought about 4800 divided by 96. But I recognized 4800 divided by 48. And that 48 was half of 96. And it kind of didn't really pay attention to the half so much. But I thought about, like I literally wrote down the fraction 4800 divided by 48. And I wrote down that that equals 100. So if there's 48. No, if there's a 100 forty-eights in 4800, then I asked myself how many 96s would be in 4800?
Yeah.
How many thing, I don't say this very well. But if there's 100 forty-eights in 4800. Then how many of something twice as big would there be? So if the group is twice as big, there can only be half as many? Yep. And that's how I got that there were 50 ninty-sixes is in 4800. So we both got to that place where there's 50 ninety-sixes is in 4800. There's one more 96 So 51.
Yeah. Nice. Nice. I like it. I do struggle to say that twice as many, and half is, like I struggle with that verbalisation too. You did that really well.
Well thanks because yes, yeah. I heard your son say it once really, really well. And from then on, I was like, "I want to be able to talk like him." So that was kind of cool.
Okay.
Don't remember. I think it might have been Cooper.
Oh, okay.
I think, I was trying to remember which kid it was. Okay.
All right. So we can't wait to see your math strategies. I wonder if you were like Pam or me or something completely different. Represent your thinking, take a picture of your work or screenshot your phone and tell the world on social media. And while you're at it, check out what other people did and comment on their thinking.
So tag me on Twitter: @PWHarris. Or
Pam Harris_math. Or on Facebook: Pam Harris, Author Mathematics Education, and make sure you use the hashtag MathStratChat. And make sure you check out the next MathStratChat problem that we'll post Wednesdays, every Wednesday at 7pm Central Time and pop back here to hear what we are thinking about the problem. We love having you as part of the Math is Figure-Out-Able movement. Let's keep spreading the word that Math is Figure-Out-Able.