Alright, let me tell you about my little adventure with “middle of 83-44”. Sounds cryptic, right? Well, it kinda was at the beginning.
So, I was staring at this problem, right? Just a seemingly simple subtraction. But something felt… off. I started by just doing it the normal way, you know, borrowing and all that jazz. 83 minus 44. Borrow 1 from the 8, making it 7. Then the 3 becomes 13. 13 minus 4 is 9. 7 minus 4 is 3. Boom, 39. Okay, simple enough.
But then, my brain started wandering. What if I broke it down differently? What if I thought about it in chunks? Like, 83 is close to 80, and 44 is close to 40. So, 80 minus 40 is 40. Easy peasy.
Now, I have to deal with the leftovers. I took away 40 instead of 44, so I still need to subtract 4. And I also didn’t account for the 3 in 83 yet. So, now it’s like 40 + 3 – 4. 43 – 4. And guess what? That’s still 39!
Here’s where it got interesting.
- I then thought, “Okay, can I visualize this?”. I grabbed some LEGO bricks (don’t judge, they’re great for this kind of thing).
- I built a tower of 83 single bricks.
- Then I started taking away 44. It’s way easier to physically see what’s happening when you subtract.
- I broke off a chunk of 40 bricks, then another 4. What was left? Yep, 39.
It’s funny, right? Such a basic problem, but playing with it in different ways really drove home the point that there’s always more than one way to skin a cat. Or, in this case, subtract some numbers.
What I really took away from this little exercise was the value of slowing down and exploring. It’s so easy to just rush through calculations, especially with calculators at our fingertips. But taking the time to think about the why behind the math, and visualize it in different ways, that’s what really makes it stick. And who knows, maybe it’ll even give you a fresh perspective on other problems you’re facing.
Plus, playing with LEGO bricks is always a good time!
