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Exploding Dots

5.6 Wild Explorations

Here is a “big question” investigation you might want to explore, or just think about. Have fun!

 

EXPLORATION: LEFT TO RIGHT? RIGHT TO LEFT? ANY ORDER?

When asked to compute 2552÷12 Kaleb drew this picture, which he got from identifying groups of twelve working right to left.

He said the answer to 2552÷12 is 121 with a remainder of 1100.

 

Mabel, on the other hand, identified groups of twelve from left to right in her diagram for the problem.

She concluded that 2552÷12 is 211 with a remainder of 20.

 

Both Kaleb and Mabel are mathematically correct, but their teacher pointed out that most people would expect an answer with smaller remainders: both 1100 and 20 would likely be considered strange remainders for a problem about division by twelve. She also showed Kaleb and Mabel the answer to the problem that is printed in the textbook.

2552÷12=212R8

How could Kaleb and Mabel each continue work on their diagrams to have this textbook answer appear?

 

 

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