How many 10s are in 436?

[mathwonk]

My 5-year-old said 3, but when I asked him about the other 40, he said "But if you asked my how many ones there are and I said 436, you'd tell me I'm not funny." :lol:

 

beautiful! this is called knowing what answer the tester wants.

[mathwonk]

My daughter said, "I'm not answering some public school problem." :lol:

 

Sorry that's not of more help.

 

this is funny too.

[nov05mama]

DS said 43 - "well, it's 40 for the 400 and then 3 more for the 30, so 43, but then there's 6 left over..."

 

I do agree that the teacher most likely just has a set formula of how she's grading and isn't even thinking about the questions themselves...just looking for the correct answer based on that chart.

[SonshineLearner]

Weird... My son... after being confused for a sec because he wanted to be back playing computer, said "Forty-six and 6/10ths :)"

[southcarolinamom]

43.6 tens :D

[Shelsi]

My 3rd grader said "3" but we use MUS so immediately he thinks of building the number with the blocks. When I told him he could also have 43 tens he said that wouldn't be efficient (his words lol) because it'd be quicker to use 4 hundreds and 3 tens.

[Ritsumei]

Mine too. My 10 year old said 43.6.

 

 

Y'all's kids are smarter than me, I think... I would have said 3. I could see 43 after someone else said it. I would never in a million years come up with 43.6, though it's obvious now too. But then, I haven't done that much homeschool math, and what we have done has already re-ordered the way that I think about numbers. This is going to be another one of those conversations that opens my eyes to new ideas in math. I always had teachers of the we-do-it-this-way-and-all-other-ways-are-wrong sort. Didn't really encourage the sort of thinking that spawns the better answers. I am so loving the math discussions here and doing math with my son!

[Roadrunner]

My son said 43.

 

Should I start worrying that my kiddo is on the way to failing math sets in PS? :)

[Running the race]

43 tens all together.

 

3 tens in the tens place.

[mlbuchina]

My first thought was 3, as it is the digit in the "tens" place, but the next thought was that there are actually 43 tens.

 

I guess the question should be more specific?

[Laura Corin]

But they are older.

 

Laura

[Mrs.Mom]

43.6 :)

 

That was my answer too, ha! :)

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

People, please, the answer is 42! The answer is always 42. :D

[nitascool]

I asked my children, "How many 10's are in 436?"

 

My 12 year old son answered..."Hmm 40, no 43 or 43 and six tenths " (3 never occurred to him). He did traditional math until 3rd grade then MUS from 3rd till now 7th grade.

 

My 10 (11 on Fri.) paused a moment: "So you want to know place value, right because there are no 1's or 0's in 436. So they are asking for either place value or grouping hum 43 or 3... depends on how you see it." He did MUS from the beginning and is in the 5th book now

 

My 8 answered... "Thinking, thinking, 43 but you could group 40 of them into 4 hundred blocks. Then you would only have 3 tens left" He did MUS from the beginning and is in book 2.

 

My 5 year old daughter answered "18 maybe... (18 is her default answer to every multi-digit number until she works it in her head) oh wait 3 ten blocks and four 100 block and that's the same as 40 so maybe 43 or 3." She did MUS from the beginning and is in Alpha the book in the series that covers place value most extensively and is probably why she thought 3 tens first.

 

Like my 10 yo my first thought was that there are no 10s in this problem. But having been a ps educated child my next thought was "what are they really asking? Are they asking how many in the tens value or how many groups of tens can I make" I would have tried to narrow things down further by reviewing the other problems on the page...because of the other questions you gave I would have said... humm how many hundreds... how many 10s maybe they want tens place value. But I didn't figure this out till around 5th or 6th grade. Instead I argued with the teacher that the questions were vague and that she should ask a specific question if she wanted a specific answer. Which didn't go over well. This is only one of the many, many reasons I homeschool.

Edited October 31, 2012 by nitascool

[Storm Bay]

In some of my dc's math texts they did this to teach place value, so it was supposed to be 3. However, technically there are 43.6 or 43 with a remainder of 6. I no longer remember if they worded it in a way to make it clear other than by knowing the assignment.