Pam  00:00

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

Kim  00:08

And I'm Kim Montague with the best pencil ever. 

Pam  00:11

And this episode 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  00:25

Alright, this past week, on Wednesday, our math problem was 5 times 29. We're curious how you would solve this problem. Pause. Solve the problem before you listen to us. The problem was 5 times 29. You want to go first or you want me to?

Pam  00:40

I kind of do. Is that okay? 

Kim  00:42

Totally fine. 

Pam  00:43

Okay, so 5 times 29. You mentioned a couple of episodes ago that sometimes people won't Double and Halve because of odd numbers. 

Kim  00:52

Yeah.

Pam  00:53

We got both odd numbers here. 5 times 29. But I'm going to go ahead and Double and Halve. I think.

Kim  00:58

Okay.

Pam  00:58

I think. So, I'm going to double the 5 to get 10, and I'm going to halve the 29 to get 14.5. 

Kim  01:06

Okay.

Pam  01:06

Yeah, I had to think about that for a second. Now, I have 10 times 14.5 Bam! 145. 

Kim  01:13

Yeah.

Pam  01:13

Particularly happy about that. 

Kim  01:15

That's nice. 

Pam  01:15

Alright, what are you doing? 

Kim  01:16

So, I'm going to double kind of. I'm going to think about ten 29s.

Pam  01:24

Ah, nice. 

Kim  01:25

And then I'm going to halve the end. So, I'm going to think ten 29s is 290. 

Pam  01:30

Mmhm.

Kim  01:31

And then half of that is 145.

Pam  01:33

Oh, I like it. I like it. If I were to do one more, I might think about thirty 5s to get twenty-nine 5s. 

Kim  01:42

Mmhm. 

Pam  01:43

That could be another way. Just for fun.

Kim  01:45

29 doesn't seem like I got a lot of fun, but it's pretty close to some nice stuff. 

Pam  01:49

Yeah.

Kim  01:50

Oh, I also am thinking about quarters with that one. 

Pam  01:53

Whoa! How?

Kim  01:55

Because 5 times 25.

Pam  01:57

Yeah.

Kim  01:59

And then 5 times 4. Those are both nice problems. 

Pam  02:02

I totally would have said that twenty-five 5s, and then four 25s. But did you say that that way (unclear).

Kim  02:10

Well, I said it because of quarters. (unclear).

Pam  02:11

Because you were thinking about quarters. 

Kim  02:12

Yeah, five 25s is 125. $1.25.

Pam  02:14

Sure wish I knew something about quarters. We have a video of Kim doing work with fourth grade kids.

Kim  02:21

Yeah, mmhm. 

Pam  02:21

And in the video, the kid's kind of messing with quarters, and Kim... Or, well... Or at least the problem could be. 

Kim  02:27

Yeah, yeah. 

Pam  02:27

And you're just like, "Sure, wish I knew something about quarters," and then you walk away. And so that's just a funny line between us because I've watched that video about 49 million times. Maybe 29 because that's our number today. 29 million times.

Kim  02:39

Alright. Well, we love MathStratChat, and we know you do too. We can't wait to see what you do every week. Join us and let us know how you think about the problems. Comment on each other strategies. 

Pam  02:49

Yeah, we post the problems on Wednesday around 7:00 pm 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. Math is Figure-Out-Able!