January 13th, 2009
Adding In Your Head the Easy Way
Adding in your head is easier if you do it from left to right
We were taught in school to add from right to left, but adding left to right is much easier! Take the following math problem.
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186 |
Look at this problem this way…
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100 |
We can all add that up easily, which is 600. Now we’re going to move our attention to the middle column and just keep adding to our total… 600+80 = 680… 680+90=770… 770+90=860… Now we add the right-hand column to that… 860+6 = 866… 866+7=873…873+4=877.
With just a little practice, you’ll be adding numbers in your head about as quickly as you can add them on paper, and you’re never really “carrying” numbers the old-fashioned way, it’s more of a running total to which you keep adding numbers. Give it a try.