Pam  00:00

Hey, fellow mathers! Welcome to the podcast where Math is Figure-Out-Able! I'm Pam Harris.

Kim  00:06

And I'm Kim Montague.

Pam  00:07

And this episode 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. And Kim.

Kim  00:21

Yes?

Pam  00:21

And learn from each other. 

Kim  00:23

Oh, I love it. 

Pam  00:24

The number of people who lately have been posting, "Oh my gosh, I've never thought of this until I saw it last week or the week before, and now trying, and it occurred to me..." Oh, it's brilliant. (unclear).

Kim  00:32

It's so fun. Yeah, I especially love when people say, "Last week, so and so..." and they tag somebody. They say, "So and so did blank, and I wanted to try it." It's super fun. I love that they're helping each other and (unclear).

Pam  00:45

(unclear). Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I love it.

Kim  00:47

Okay. 

Pam  00:47

Love it. 

Kim  00:48

So, we would love that to happen this week. And on this Wednesday, our problem was 462 minus 227. So, how would you solve the problem? Pause, please. Make yourself think about it. Solve it any way you would like, and then chime in on social media. Our problem is 462 minus 220. 

Pam  01:11

Bam. Alright, I'm going to go first this time. 

Kim  01:14

Okay. 

Pam  01:15

So, I thought about trying to be you and Over. 

Kim  01:20

That is so funny. 

Pam  01:22

But subtract 227? Bleh. That's not a very overy number at all. So, then I thought, "Darn it, I'm going to have to be me." I'm just going to think Constant Difference. So, good luck, I don't know what you're going to do. So, I'm just plunking down 227 on a number line and 462. And I'm asking myself how far apart they are. And I'm thinking, ugh, I don't really want to do that, so I'm going to shift that distance up a little bit to 230. I'm not sure I'm going to like this, so I reserve the right to change it. If I shift to 227 to 230. That's up by 3. Then I'm going to shift 462 to 465. That's up by 3. Now, I have the equivalent problem 465 minus 230. It's not bad. That's just 235. 

Kim  02:03

Okay, that was fabulous. 

Pam  02:05

Okay.

Kim  02:06

And it is good to be you. (unclear). The reason I said that's so funny was because as you... Like right before as I read the problem, I said to myself, "Oh, I'm going to Over," and then when you said you were going to Over I was like, "Oh man. I got to think of something fast.

Pam  02:24

Are you still going Over?

Kim  02:24

I am. 

Pam  02:26

Oh, I can't wait. Alright.

Kim  02:27

I know. Well, because I also think that 462 minus 230 isn't all that bad. So, 462 minus 230. You know, I thought about the 230 kind of in my head real quick, and I was like, "Oh." I did do a little comparison. And there was no... You know, the place values kind of worked nicely.

Pam  02:48

Mmm, mmhm, mmhm.

Kim  02:49

So, back 230 would be 232. And then I adjusted 3 to get to 235. 

Pam  02:56

Nice. 

Kim  02:57

Yeah. So it doesn't really look like a great Over problem, but because the place values kind of fall apart really nicely that one turned out not bad.

Pam  03:05

Because 400 minus 200 you can do. And 60 minus 30 is cool. And there's that 2 leftover. Okay. Alright, that makes sense. Yeah. 

Kim  03:12

Yeah.

Pam  03:13

Nice.

Kim  03:13

Okay. Alright, everyone, we can't wait to see what you do. Join us on MathStratChat, and let us know how you think about problems.

Pam  03:20

And I better scroll, so I know what to say next. Um, hey, and we post the problems on Wednesdays at 7pm Central time. When you answer, tag me and use the hashtag MathStratChat. Then join us here to hear how we're thinking about the problem. Ya'll, thanks for being part of the Math is Figure-Out-Able movement because Math is Figure-Out-Able!