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

Kim  0:07  
And I'm Kim. 

Pam  0:08  
And this episode is a MathStratChat episode or a MathStartChat 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.

Kim  0:22  
This Wednesday, our math problem was 14 times 36. How would you solve this problem? Pause the podcast. Solve it however you'd like, and then come on back. This problem is 14 times 36.

Pam  0:35  
Ta-da dum. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.
Mmhm, mmhm, mhmm. 

Kim  0:44  
I'm writing down some factors because last week we did flexible factoring, and I'm kind of wanting to mess with that again.

Pam  0:54  
That's kind of what I was messing with. 

Kim  0:56  
Yeah.

Pam  0:59  
I wonder if we messed with the same ones.

Kim  1:01  
Oh, I have a list. Should we talk about them? Because I think part of it for me was thinking about the 36 in a bunch of different ways to just see if...

Pam  1:10  
Because 14 is pretty much 7 times 2, right,

Kim  1:12  
Yeah.

Pam  1:12  
or 2 times 7, so 36 is really the one that you can mess with. 

Kim  1:16  
Mmhm.

Pam  1:16  
Yeah, yeah. What was your favorite?

Kim  1:19  
I think I'm going to go with 2 times 7 times 4 times 9.

Pam  1:24  
Okay.

Kim  1:24  
Which might sound weird. But then I'm going to go with 63 times 8, because then I can do 10 times 63, back two 63s. 

Pam  1:35  
Yeah. 

Kim  1:37  
So, it's back 126.

Pam  1:40  
Yeah.

Kim  1:40  
So, that's 504. So, ten 63s is a 630. Back. 

Pam  1:49  
Nice.

Kim  1:49  
Yeah.

Pam  1:50  
I like it. Alright, here's what I was flexibly factoring. I decided to go with 7 times 2 times 6 times 6, so that I can have 7 times 6 is 42 times 12. It's the 12 that grabbed me.

Kim  2:06  
Yeah.

Pam  2:07  
I wonder if it was the 8 that grabbed you, because you were like, "8, that's just 2 from 10."

Kim  2:18  
Yeah.

Pam  2:18  
And I grabbed the 12 because that's just 10 more than... Or 2 more than 10. That's interesting. You went 2 less than 10, and I went 2 more than 10.

Kim  2:19  
Yeah. 

Pam  2:19  
So, 7 times 6 is 42. Times 12. So, I said 10 times 42 is 420. 2 times 42 is 84. 420 and 84 is also 504.

Kim  2:31  
Yeah. You know what? That's interesting. Because sometimes I think people think that flexible factoring is only to have like a perfect problem. And that sure is nice, a perfect problem, one that just kind of falls together nicely. But sometimes just like we combine strategies with others. You know, other strategies, we do one or two together, right? Two or three together. Here is an example of we wanted flexible factoring because it's on our minds, but then we combined it with maybe a little Over, a little Smart Partial. Nice.

Pam  3:01  
Do you mind if I just talk about one other one that I think would be kind of nice for a geometry teacher to pull out? 

Kim  3:06  
Sure. 

Pam  3:07  
Not that anybody else couldn't, but specifically nice. So, if I thought about 14 times 36 is 15 times 36.

Kim  3:13  
Yeah.

Pam  3:14  
Then I could think about 10 times 36 is 360. 360 degrees is kind of nice. Which then helps me think about 5 times 36 is half of that? Because once I have 10 times 36 is 360, half of that's just 180.

Kim  3:27  
Yeah. 

Pam  3:27  
And I kind of want to know that 360 and 180 is 540. I didn't even do that addition, Kim. I've done 360 and 180 to be 540 enough in like trig, that that just like fell out. And so, it would be kind of nice if kids kind of had that experience beforehand a little bit. And then I just subtract the extra 36 because I had found fifteen 36s, but I only needed 14. 540 minus 36 was also 504. Yeah, cool. 

Kim  3:50  
Nice, nice. It's funny that you were talking about 36, 360, and 180 because when I was looking at other relationships I might want to use, I thought about 14 times 35. And in my head, I heard you say, "People know lots of things about 35!" because I've heard you talk about that before. And I didn't chase that problem down, but it was an opportunity to use 35, which you say happens. And I chuckle when I see it. Okay, well, 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. Comment on each other's strategies.

Pam  4:24  
We post the problems on Wednesdays around 7:00 p.m. Central. And 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... Figure... Really? I got almost to the end, Kim! Figure-Out-Able movement because Math is Figure-Out-Able.