Pam  00:00

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

Kim  00:07

And I'm Kim Montague.

Pam  00:08

And this is a MathStratChat episode because 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.

Kim  00:20

Okay, so this Wednesday, our problem was 81 minus 27. How would you like to solve this problem? Pause. Solve it however you'd like. The problem is 81 minus 27. 

Pam  00:30

Dun, dun, dun. Kim, you go.

Kim  00:32

I will go.

Pam  00:34

81 is nine 9s. 27 is three 9s. So, nine 9s minus three 9s is six 9s. Which is 54.

Kim  00:45

Very nice. I happen to know that 27 times 3 is 81, so I'm going to think about three 27s minus one 27 is two 27s. And I deal with 27s a lot because I do Problem Strings with 1 pack of gum has 27 sticks in it. So, two 27s, I just know is 54.

Pam  01:10

Nicely done. 

Kim  01:11

Hey, but maybe we should do a subtraction one as well. 

Pam  01:14

Okay. We could think about... (unclear).

Kim  01:16

(unclear) What do you mean a subtraction one?

Pam  01:17

Well, we just both use multiplication to subtract.

Kim  01:19

Oh, like just plain old subtraction. Because we subtracted after we did. I mean, after we factored, then we subtracted.

01:25

I mean kind of. Yes. Nine 9s minus three 9s. Can I just... Can I do with a plain old boring?

Kim  01:32

It's not boring. It's just not multiplicative. Go for it. 

Pam  01:35

Alright, I'm going to think about 81 minus 1 to get to 80. But I still have subtract 26 more. And I'm going to try to play I have you need a little bit with total of 80.

Kim  01:45

Yep. 

Pam  01:46

And so I'm going to say that's 54. Yeah.

Kim  01:50

Yep.

Pam  01:51

Yeah. I had to... I'm trying to get better at that because you told me a while ago that if I really own partners of 10 well, I could use those. Because ordinarily, 80 minus 26 is not all that, I don't know, chipper for me. Yeah. But I thought about the 6. And its partners 4. And then I thought about the 20. And I'm like, so normally 80 minus 20 would be 60, so it's got to be 50. That's kind of what actually happened in my head. Alright, cool. 

Kim  02:17

Yeah. I'm going to go 80 minus 30 for my subtraction strategy. 81. Sorry. 81 minus 30. 

Pam  02:23

Okay. 

Kim  02:23

Is 51. That's too much, so I'm going to add 3 more to get 54.

Pam  02:30

Nice. 

Kim  02:30

So many fun things you can do. Alright. 

Pam  02:32

That's a great problem. 

Kim  02:33

We can't wait to see what you do every week. I love to scroll and see what people are thinking about. Join us on MathStratChat and let us know how you think about the problems and comment on each other's strategies.

Pam  02:43

And maybe send it to your favorite person on your social media channel and say, "Hey, solve this problem!" And then you guys can exchange strategies as well. Ya'll, we post the problems on Wednesdays around 7:00 pm Central. When you answer, tag me and use the hashtag MathStratChat. Then join us to hear how we're thinking about the problem. We love having you as part of the Math is Figure-Out-Able movement. Math is Figure-Out-Able.