Let's say you have 2 boxes with 6 cookies in each boxes; and you're going to share them with me, right?
Seriously, don't try sticking cookies into my disk drive. It could cause all sorts of problems. Right now, the only problems we want to solve are math problems!
So, you have 2 boxes, 6 cookies in each box. How many cookies do you have all together?
You can figure this math problem out in several ways. Let's look at a few of them now: Count the cookies in both boxes. How many did you count?
You could add 6 cookies + 6 cookies
or
You could multiply 2 boxes x 6 cookies in each box.
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Since you now know that there are 12 cookies all together, how many cookies would each of us get if you split them between you and me?
Let's see, that's:
12 cookies divided by 2 wizards =
cookies each.
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Have you ever heard the saying "Three is a crowd?" Well, that's not always true. With numbers, three is a fact family. See the fact family here. It is the (2, 6, 12) family.
Written as number sentences, the (2, 6, 12) fact family looks like this:
2
x 6 = 12
6
x
2 = 12
12
2 = 6
12
6 = 2
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Try a fact family on your own. If you had 8 seats on the roller coaster and 3 people could sit in each seat, how many people could ride the roller coaster each trip?
This problem looks like:
3 x 8 =
8 x 3 =
3 = 8
8 = 3
Fill in the blank with the correct answer.
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Look at this fact family.
3 x 2 = 6
2 x 3 = 6
6 / 3 = 2
6 / 2 = 3
Notice that we used a new symbol for division. The slash is often used instead of the
to represent division. We will use a slash for the rest of this lesson.
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If you're still having trouble, think of the fact family in a triangle.
This is your answer or product of your multiplication problem or the dividend of your division problem.
What number is the largest?
What number is the smallest?
What number is the other number?