Questions tagged [arithmetic-operations]
The arithmetic-operations tag has no usage guidance.
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Speed math appropriate for middle-school students
There are many "rules" for speed arithmetic.
List of some reference links showing speed methods or rules:
https://ofpad.com/multiplication-tricks-for-mental-math/
https://ofpad.com/mental-...
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Order of operations pemdas
Why was the order of operations established in mathematics with multiplication taking precedence over addition, as dictated by the PEMDAS rule? What historical or practical factors influenced this ...
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Why are there two inverses to exponentiation?
I'm not sure if this is more educational or more "pure math", but:
For multiplication and addition, there is exactly one inverse operation, namely division and subtraction.
For ...
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3
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Reduction of fractions
Last night I was fiddling with some equations and admittedly, I made a careless mistake because I was exhausted. However, in doing so, I began to question the process of what I used to understand as &...
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Is it normal for a child to strongly prefer addition to subtraction?
My six-year-old daughter enjoys addition but not subtraction. When we walk together, I like to give her some "mental mathematics" questions, such as "What is 13 plus 33" and she ...
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Math dyslexia is a big problem for me. I lag behind my classmates
I am a 17-year-old secondary school student from India studying math, physics, and other subjects. I lag behind other classmates only because I work slowly when doing addition, subtraction, ...
user19536
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How to convince a high school student that the $=$ symbol denotes identity?
In French language, arithmetic statements are often read, at the elementary school level, as , say, " deux et deux font quatre" , i.e. something like " two and two make four".
Out ...
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Is there a name for this method of column addition and subtraction?
Suppose I want to subtract 46 from 52. Instead of the borrowing method, I can use this method:
\begin{array}{r}
& 5 & 2\\
-\!\!\!\!\!\!& 4 & 6 \\
\hline
& & -4 \\
+\!\!\!\!\!\!&...
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What is a good math "curriculum" for a mathematically precocious 4-year old?
I am parent to a 4-year-old son who is mathematically precocious. An example of what I mean (since I'm sure guys like Gauss were proving theorems at 4):
He multiplies and divides small numbers easily,...
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Analyzing an answer to the following problem: Give meaning to $\frac{4}{5} + \frac{2}{3}$
Case:
Exam Problem given to student at university: Give a problem/context illustrating the operation $\frac{4}{5} + \frac{2}{3}$
Answer by student: Anna and Beatrice buy flowers for grandpa for his ...
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Did Americans, before new math came in to schools, really say, 'three from two is nine carry the one", instead of borrowing ten from the tens column?
Tom Lehrer claims and the audience seems to agree with him that the 'old way', before new math to do subtraction was to say, for example, 'three from two is nine carry the one'. I never heard of this ...
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Which product of single digits do children usually get wrong?
(I was inspired by the comments in this answer to ask this question.)
I have some multiplication table cards from Kumon that have a list of commonly mistaken multiplications: $7\times 8, 4\times 8, 11\...
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Is there a virtue to learning how to compute by hand?
I have been professionally tutoring a wide range of students (from elementary school through graduate school) for many years. Most of them are from the United States. I generally focus on helping my ...
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Generating system of equations with unique solutions
I have a similar problem addressed in System of Equations Generator. What I need is an automatic way of generating a system of equations with unique solutions, but the equations are not exclusively ...
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At what age are most children able to convert between rational fractions and decimals?
At what age are most children able/taught to convert between rational fractions and decimals?
For example
Convert 0.25 to a fraction consisting only of whole numbers.
What is 3/4 expressed in ...
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How to naturally encounter the properties of identity, commutativity, associativity, and distributivity (to define rings)?
(Cross posted at MSE: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3742948/how-did-we-isolate-the-properties-of-identity-commutativity-associativity-and)
In elementary school, I remember learning about ...
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Workbooks for advanced high school math topics
I'm looking for advanced workbooks and exercises for working in class (math high school/undergraduate level) covering the following topics (or some of them):
Logic and sets (propositional calculus, ...
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Different ways to multiply decimals
I am an undergraduate secondary math education major. In $2$ weeks I have to give a Number Talk in my math ed class on the problem "$3.9$ times $7.5$". I need to come up with as many different ...
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Is short division taught these days and if not, why not?
tl;dr I'm interested in opinions on short division. Below I discuss my experience dealing with young children and long division versus short division. For those that don't know of it, wikiHow has a ...
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Introductory exercise for the addition of large natural numbers
I'm starting a repetition with my students in 5th grade after they learned in elementary school how to sum up larger natural numbers (also 5- to 6-digits) by writing down that calculation.
As ...
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A PEMDAS issue request for explanation
This question made the rounds recently -
$8÷2(2+2)=?$
Now, I glanced at this, answered "1" and then saw the full article printed in the New York Times, The Math Equation That Tried to Stump the ...
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Is a clear distinction made between signs and operators?
This question about FOIL, comments and answers made me think about the two roles of $-$: as a sign and as an operator. This struck me because the title
"Why in the FOIL Method the terms are taken ...
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Why in the FOIL Method the terms are taken with their signs?
That was the most boring title I could choose but in all honesty, it is what the question is. Here is a reminder of the FOIL method that is used for multiplying two binomials. For example, to multiply ...
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Teaching three-year-old subtraction using the number line
I am aware of questions such as this one. On the other hand, I still believe that teaching a bright three year old subtraction is possible. He counts from $0$ to $100$ and backwards from $10$ to $-10$,...
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Viewing arithmetical operations as processes-possibly wrong and detrimental to long term math performance of the students [duplicate]
I think that the standard practice in the first grades when addition (or other operation) is taught as a "process" may be not so good.
I always wondered why so many children lose interest in math ...
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How to correct visualization of mathematical expressions?
This happens a lot when I try to explain the commutative property, mostly in elementary grade levels. I say
2 + 3 = ?
and then the student usually replies with 5. Albeit they're not wrong, it's not ...
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Third Grade Question -- This makes no sense to me
Third grade grandchild had this for homework. Can someone explain the intent here?
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Has Benezet's teaching experiment ever been reproduced?
In the 1930's, Louis Bénézet, a superintendent of several schools in New Hampshire made the interesting experiment of teaching no formal arithmetic until grade 6:
In the fall of 1929 I made up my ...
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How to present the order of factors and summands for the usual multiplication procedure
In the following multiplication example,
$$\begin{align}
34\;&
\\\underline{\times\;\; 7\;}&
\end{align}$$
first one would multiply the units digits, producing the partial product $28$ as ...
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Subtraction using Addition (Austrian Method), is it useful to learn this method instead of the usual "borrow" method?
I came across this method to perform subtraction using addition and not using the "borrow" concept, apparently because it is harder to learn it that way.
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
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Exponents with Negative Base; with or without Parentheses
How can I convincingly and mathematically explain the reason behind difference between $(-1)^2$ and $-1^2$?
I used to add "negation" to the order of operations, in the same row as multiplication and ...
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How to teach multiplication between integers for the first time
Some teachers teach multiplication between integers with the following rules:
plus with plus gives plus
plus with minus gives minus
etc.
So for example in order to deal with the multiplication $2\...
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What's the word for addition and subtraction without borrowing or carrying over?
Is it regrouping? Upon googling it seems regrouping is borrowing or carrying over collectively. What's the word for not borrowing and carrying over? It's supposedly to train mental computation.
...
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How to use these actions words for subtraction?
Do the following sentences express 5-2?
a. 5 fewer 2 is 3
b. 2 fewer than 5 is 3
c. 5 less 2 is 3
d. 5 gave 2 is 3
I also saw online that "shared" can also mean "...
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Learning operator priorities by drawing trees
As far as I know (and here I am refering to my own math education), operator priorities of $+$, $-$, $\cdot$, $\div$, power and parenthesis are taught via some simple phrases like
"pointy" ...
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What is the pedagogical justification and history for using mnemonics to teach order of operations?
There was previously a question/rant here on MESE about why so many are still using the PEMDAS/BODMAS/BIDMAS/BEDMAS mnemonics to teach order of operations. The question was deleted (still viewable by ...
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Why is modulo not an elementary operation?
Like it is just as primitive as makes intuitive sense in a way similar to division. I feel like teaching 4th graders the modulo function would complement learning division extremely well, as it helps ...
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Proof of why BODMAS (or BIDMAS) works?
In my first full-time teaching post, it is very likely that I'll need to be teaching a small amount of GCSE Mathematics to students retaking it. One thing that has been bugging me is that I can't seem ...
user5447
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Teaching arithmetic operations ($+ - \times \div$) to a 3 year old
What is the best way to teach the standard arithmetic operations ($+ - \times \div$) to a 3 year old child?
Also: How we do know if the child has really understood it?
can a kid be 3 years old ...
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Repeated addition: standard notation?
My daughter showed me the picture below, which came from 9GAG. It shows a question on an exam asking the student to "use the repeated addition strategy to solve: 5 x 3." The student answered "5+5+5" ...
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Method for teaching factorization
A while back I stumbled on teacher's website that advocated a different way to teach factorization. Rather than jumping straight to factorization practice, the teacher first had their student's ...
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Visual questions for 6th graders
I'm tutoring a 6th grader in math at the moment and because she never has a ton of homework I like to give her some interesting extra problems to do. It seems she really enjoyed a problem I showed ...
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How do I help a 6-year-old understand the meaning of her sums
I am tutoring a Grade 2 girl in arithmetic. She has demonstrated an ability to add two-digit numbers with carrying. For example:
$$\;\;14\\
+27\\
=41$$
I asked her to write this out horizontally, ...
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Parse out 2/3 of 30 minus 11
Note - I am not a math teacher; I am seeking an answer from a math teacher.
While helping my son with his 5th grade homework today we had one answer wrong. I'm not sure I agree with the book and ...
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Is there any other procedure to find the square root?
If no calculator is allowed, and we want to find the square root of a square number if it is large and analyzing to prime factors is hard, how can one proceed? For example, what to do if the number ...
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Dividing by zero
I was having a discussion with a friend and fellow mathematics teacher the other day when the topic of dividing by zero came up. She is the department head and had this in a questionnaire she gave to ...
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