In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on November 16, 2022.
Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.
Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.
Pam Harris:
Hey fellow mathematicians. Welcome to the podcast where Math is Figure-Out-Able. I'm Pam Harris.
Kim Montague:
I'm Kim Montague.
Pam Harris:
And this episode is a MathStratChat episode. You might ask, "What is MathStratChat?" Well, every Wednesday evening, I throw out a math problem on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, all the social media. People from around the world chat about the strategies they use. It's super to see everyone's thinking.
Kim Montague:
Okay, so this Wednesday, our math problem was 4752 divided by 48. How would you solve this problem? pause the podcast, solve it any way you want. Remember, the problem was 4752 divided by 48. Solve it, then come back to hear how we solve it. (pause) Okay, Pam, so what did you do?
Pam Harris:
Okay, I'm thinking as soon as I saw division, I started to think, I could think about this in two ways. But then when I looked at 4752, I immediately was like, I don't think I want to do an equivalent ratio strategy. I don't want to think about trying to find common factors of 4752 and 48. Even though 48 was screaming, divide that by two or eight, or like the lots of factors, the 4052 was killing me. So then when I saw, yeah, when I saw 4748, like that 47 and 48 kind of was ringing, sort of that I can think about scaling up from 48. So I thought, I put in a ratio table, I'm dealing with 48s. So I've got one to 48. And I'm trying to work up to 4752. Well, for one hundred 48s, so in my ratio table, I have 1 to 48. Then I have 100 to 4800. And the difference between 4800 and 4,752 Is....if I have 52, you need 48. Bam, it's just one 48. So I need ninety-nine 48 to make 4752. So the answer is ninety-nine.
Kim Montague:
Nice. So what's interesting is that I had a lot of the same thinking, but what I put on my paper was different than what you did.
Pam Harris:
Ahh, okay.
Kim Montague:
So I, same thing. I looked at the problem. And I saw that 4752 was really close to 4800. And so I also thought
Pam Harris:
You literally... I'm gonna go a little bit over. And so what I wrote down was 100 times 48 is 4800. I wrote an equation. And then I said, "How far away am I in that subtraction of 4800 and4752?" And saw that I was just 48 away. So then the next thing I wrote on my paper was 99 times 48 is 4752. So I was thinking more.
Kim Montague:
Go ahead.
Pam Harris:
You literally have two equations written down.
Kim Montague:
I do. Yep.
Pam Harris:
And I have three columns of a ratio table.
Kim Montague:
Yeah.
Pam Harris:
Very nice.
Kim Montague:
Very good. Cool. Okay, so we can't wait to see what you were thinking as you solve this problem. I wonder if your strategy was like ours or something entirely different. represent your thinking we'd love it. If you take a picture of your work or screenshot your phone and tell the world and social media. Hey, and while you're there, check out what other people did and comment on their thinking.
Pam Harris:
Yeah, so tag me on Twitter: @PWHarris. Or
Instagram:
Pam Harris_math. Or Facebook: Pam Harris, Author Mathematics Education, and make sure you use the hashtag MathStratChat. And make sure you check out the MathStratChat problem we post next Wednesday right around 7pm Central Time and pop back here to hear what we're 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.