Pam 00:00
Hey, fellow mathematicians! Welcome to the short podcast where Math is Figure-Out-Able! I'm Pam.
Kim 00:07
And I'm Kim.
Pam 00:08
And it's short because this is a MathStratChat episode, where we chat about our math strategies. Every Wednesday evening, I throw out a math problem on social media, and people from around the world chat about the strategies they use and comment on each other's thinking. Which, to be clear, is the best part when ya'll comment on each other's thinking.
Kim 00:25
Oh, for sure.
Pam 00:26
We love that.
Kim 00:26
Yeah, I mean, we comment on what people are doing. But when they comment on each other's? That's super cool. When they say, "I did that too!" Alright, so this week, our math problem was two-eighths times four-fifths. How would you solve this problem? Pause the podcast. Solve before you listen. The problem is two-eighths times four-fifths. Solve it, and then come on back to how here we're going to... How? Mmm. Just listen.
Pam 00:54
How's it going? There we go. Just listen. Just do it. Just do it. Alright, Kim, you go first.
Kim 00:59
Okay.
Pam 01:00
Two-eighths. The fraction two-eighths times the fraction four-fifths.
Kim 01:03
Alright, I like this one because two-eighths is one-fourth. And one-fourth of four-fifths. One-fourth of 4 anything's is just one of them. So, one-fourth of four-fifths is just one-fifth.
Pam 01:21
Nice. And it's funny, I wrote one-fourth. I'm not sure why. But I'll fix that now.
Kim 01:24
Lots the fours.
Pam 01:25
Yeah, as you said it. You literally said one-fourth, and I wrote one-fourth. And I was like, "No." I had to like, "Let's fix that." Okay, so...
Kim 01:34
Oh, I'm so mad now!
Pam 01:36
Did you want to do something else?
Kim 01:37
Well... No, maybe I'll do it another time.
Pam 01:43
Well, I don't know what I think about this, but I'm going to... So, I agree with you that two-eighths is one-fourth, is equivalent to one-fourth. So, one-fourth of four-fifths. I was going to think about a fourth, one-fourth, as a half of a half.
Kim 01:59
Okay.
Pam 02:00
So, a half of four-fifths. One-half of four-fifths. If I had 4 things, four-fifths, one-half of that would be two-fifths.
Kim 02:09
Okay.
Pam 02:10
But I need a half of that because I'm finding a fourth. And fourth is half of a half. So, a half of two-fifths would be one-fifth. That would be another way of thinking about it. What was your other? The thing that you wish you would have done? Were you thinking percentages?
Kim 02:22
I was. I was. I'll do it another time.
Pam 02:25
You don't want to do percentages now?
Kim 02:26
I can if you want me to, but.
Pam 02:28
Well, were you... Now, I'm super curious. Were you thinking 80%? Like, four-fifths?
Kim 02:34
Yeah, I was thinking a fourth of 80%, which is 20%.
Pam 02:37
Oh, that's interesting. I was going to say 80% of a fourth. But okay.
Kim 02:42
80% of a fourth.
Pam 02:44
Yeah, and you just... When you said percent...
Kim 02:47
Wait, wait, wait. 80% of a fourth?
Pam 02:48
(unclear) Is that right?
Kim 02:50
I don't know. Is that right? (unclear).
Pam 02:51
Well, because then you said you would think of 1/4 of 80%.
Kim 02:54
Yeah, yeah.
Pam 02:55
And I had just written 80% of 1/4. (unclear)
Kim 02:57
Do you like that better?
Pam 02:59
No! I like yours way better.
Kim 03:02
(unclear) That's why I was like, "Oh, I guess." It's possible.
Pam 03:05
Especially if you think of 1/4 as like 25. 0.25. 80% of that. Yuck. No, but a fourth of 80%.
Kim 03:11
A fourth of 80%. Yeah.
Pam 03:13
Is what? 20%. And that's equivalent to the one-fifth that we had found. Nice.
Kim 03:16
Yeah.
Pam 03:17
Cool.
Kim 03:18
Cool. Alright, everyone, we can't wait to see what you are thinking. And we mean it! Share your strategy! Represent your thinking! And while you share it with us, tell the world on social media that you love MathStratChat.
Pam 03:30
And you might be thinking, "Why do they always tell us to post our strategies?" So, ya'll, one of the reasons is when you commit, and you actually post your strategy, A, your brain will get more ingrained. You'll feel that strategy more. You'll get that track in your brain, will be a little bit more well traveled. But secondly, it will help us spread the Math is Figure-Out-Able movement. Because the more people that will post with MathStratChat, the more the world sees people chatting about their strategies, the more we can get more people saying, "Hey, what's happening there? That's interesting." And we can open the door to mathematics, to more and more people, which we like to do. (unclear).
Kim 04:08
And I'm not going to lie.
Pam 04:09
Oh. Yeah?
Kim 04:10
I much prefer seeing people who have taken a picture of their hand written work.
Pam 04:15
Yeah, that's fun.
Kim 04:15
It's super fun. I mean, you can type it. But if you want to be cool, take a picture of what you're writing.
Pam 04:22
And while you're there, tag me, and use the hashtag MathStratChat. And then, check out the MathStratChat problem that we'll post every Wednesday around 7pm Central Time. And come back here, and we'll tell you how 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!
