Make a story involving addition or subtraction of fractions such that the
answer is . Do not use 0 as part of the addition or subtraction.
1
4
Think If I start with a whole, how do I get —?
I can subtract
from the whole
4
=
?
Answers
Answer:
Seven. What is seven? Seven children; seven ideas; seven times in a row; seventh grade; a lucky roll in dice; seven yards of cotton; seven stories high; seven miles from here; seven acres of land; seven degrees of incline; seven degrees below zero; seven grams of gold; seven pounds per square inch; seven years old; finishing seventh; seven thousand dollars of debt; seven percent alcohol; Engine No. 7; The Magnificent Seven. How can an idea with one name be used in so many different ways, denoting such various senses of quantity? Consider how different a measure of time (seven years) is from one of temperature (seven degrees), how different a measure of length (seven meters) is from a count (seven children), and how different either of these is from a position (finishing seventh or being in seventh grade). Even within measures, some are represented as ratios (seven pounds per square inch, seven percent alcohol) and others as simple units (seven miles, seven liters). Although normally taken for granted, it is remarkable that seven, or any number, can be used in so many ways. That versatility helps explain why number is so fundamental in describing the world.
Its versatility helps explain why number is so fundamental in describing the world.
This chapter surveys the domain of number. It was developed in part in response to the charge to the committee to describe the context of the study with respect to the areas of mathematics that are important as foundations in grades pre-K to 8 for building continued learning. The intent of this chapter is essentially mathematical; learning and teaching are treated elsewhere. The chapter does not set forth a curriculum for students but instead provides a panoramic view of the territory on which the numerical part of the school curriculum is built. Nor is the chapter intended as a curriculum for teachers. Instead, it identifies some of the crucial ideas about number that we think
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Suggested Citation:"3 NUMBER: WHAT IS THERE TO KNOW?." National Research Council. 2001. Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9822.×
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teachers should know. Many of these ideas are treated in more detail in textbooks intended for prospective elementary school teachers.
A major theme of the chapter is that numbers are ideas—abstractions that apply to a broad range of real and imagined situations. Operations on numbers, such as addition and multiplication, are also abstractions. Yet in order to communicate about numbers and operations, people need representations—something physical, spoken, or written. And in order to carry out any of these operations, they need algorithms: step-by-step procedures for computation. The chapter closes with a discussion of the relationship between number and other important mathematical domains such as algebra, geometry, and probability.
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