Pam  0:00  
Hey, fellow mathers! Welcome to the podcast where Math is Figure-Out-Able. I'm Pam Harris. 

Kim  0:06  
And I'm Kim Montague.

Pam  0:08  
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  0:19  
Okay, so this Wednesday, our problem was appropriately...

Pam  0:23  
[Pam's desk rising] 

Kim  0:24  
...12 times 31. How would you solve this problem? What are you doing?

Pam  0:29  
Could you hear that?

Kim  0:30  
100%. 

Pam  0:31  
My stand up desk all of a sudden decided to stand up on me. I was like, "What?" So, then I was like, "Go back down." I just figured Craig would like edit it out.

Kim  0:40  
Until I called attention to it?

Pam  0:41  
Until you called attention to it. But so, hey, it's alright. It's good. So, what was the problem?

Kim  0:57  
Alright people, 12

times 31. Solve it however you want. 

Pam  1:03  
Oh, my goodness. Do it. 

Kim  1:03  
Do it now.

Pam  1:03  
I don't even know 12 times 31. What in the world? That's a terrible problem. 

Kim  0:56  
It's the date. 

Pam  1:04  
I mean, it's 12, so that just seems boring to just do the 12.

Kim  1:04  
Sorry, you don't like the problem. 

Pam  1:04  
Oh. Okay, I have a decent strategy now. Oh...

Kim  1:04  
Would you like to go first? 

Pam  1:05  
I know why we're doing it. Because guess the day that it drops.

Kim  1:13  
I know that's what I just said. It's the date. 

Pam  1:20  
What? Are you kidding me? 

Kim  1:21  
Oh my gosh. 

Pam  1:22  
Did you say it was my birthday? 

Kim  1:23  
No, Happy Birthday when this comes out.

Pam  1:24  
When it comes out, it'll be my birthday. 

Kim  1:26  
Alright, solve the problem, lady.

Pam  1:27  
Dang it. My turn first? 

Kim  1:28  
If you want it to be. Do you want me to go?

Pam  1:31  
Dang it, lady. Okay. I'm going to find 31 times 12.

Kim  1:35  
Okay. 

Pam  1:36  
By finding 30 times 12, and then adding 12. Okay. And I'm going to solve 30 times 12 by thinking about 3 times 12, which is 36.

Kim  1:45  
Yeah. 

Pam  1:45  
Times 10, which is 360. And then plus the 12, which is 372. And do you know, that I did not used to know what 3 times 12 was?

Kim  1:56  
Oh, interesting.

Pam  1:57  
Mmhm.

Kim  1:58  
You dont' buy a lot of eggs?

Pam  1:59  
Yeah, I mean, it's been quite a while. No, yeah. I just never. I didn't think about 12s. 12s were the one that I never memorized.

Kim  2:06  
Mmhm.

Pam  2:06  
And I just would like refigure them every time, because it was like why not.

Kim  2:12  
Yeah.

Pam  2:12  
So, I never dealt with 12s. It's just like I just turned my brain off, and I just didn't. To me, it was a problem to solve, not a relationship to think about. I don't know if that makes sense.

Kim  2:18  
Yeah, that's true.

Pam  2:19  
Yeah. Okay. What do you got?

Kim  2:20  
When my youngest was... I don't know, like second, third grade, 12s were his thing. Like, he thought he was big to memorize the 12s, right? And I didn't know at the time that he wasn't really memorizing them. But yeah. He liked to tell everybody what the 12s were. Okay.

Pam  2:36  
Meaning, that he was thinking about him versus memorizing?

Kim  2:38  
Oh, yeah. I mean come on.

Pam  2:41  
Yeah.

Kim  2:41  
He's in my house.

Pam  2:42  
Alright, what do you got?

Kim  2:42  
When I see 12 times 31, I have no idea why, but I decided to divide by 6 times times. Times times. Divide by 6, multiply by 6. 

Pam  2:55  
Okay.

Kim  2:55  
So, I went 12 divided by 6 is 2.

Pam  2:59  
Yeah.

Kim  3:00  
31 times 6. And I don't know. I don't know. I knew it was 186. 

Pam  3:06  
Sure, that's not too bad.

Kim  3:07  
And so, then when I was at 12 times... Or 2 times 186, then I doubled 186.

Pam  3:13  
And do you just know? What were you thinking about? Doubling 18?

Kim  3:19  
Yeah. Well, 180 and 6, yeah.

Pam  3:21  
So, then double 180 is 360. 

Kim  3:21  
Mmhm.

Pam  3:21  
And then double 6. And you ended up with 360 plus 12 just like I did.

Kim  3:29  
Mmhm. Can I can I tell you, though? When I doubled 186, I kind of like threw me back into the way I added like long time ago, like growing up add left to right. That's what it felt like to me. Like, not necessarily one place value digit at a time. I just kind of gathered the things I wanted to gather. Like, there's no rhyme or reason.

Pam  3:52  
The 18s.

Kim  3:53  
Yeah, the 18 was 180 is 360. Anyway.

Pam  3:57  
Huh. 

Kim  3:57  
12 times 31.

Pam  4:00  
Bam, alright. We... 

Kim  4:01  
We can't wait to see what you do each week. Join us on MathStratChat and let us know how you think about the problems and comment on each other's strategies.

Pam  4:07  
We love it when you comment on each other's strategies. Y'all, we post the problems on Wednesdays around 7:00 p.m. Central. When you answer, tag me and use the hashtag MathStratChat. Then join us here 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!