Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Answers: Using Estimation to Make Math Easier!

Yesterday, Ms. Hoffman asked for your help. She thought maybe she could use estimation to make converting from Turkish Lira to US Dollars easier.

Did you think of a good way?

Here is one way:
Ms. Hoffman knows that 0.45 is close to 0.50. (Just like 45 is close to 50 when you round to the nearest 10)
$0.50 is half of $1.00.
If 1 Turkish Lira is about half of $1.00 then about 2 Turkish Lira equal $1.00. Make sense?

Now it is easy! All you have to do is divide how many Turkish Lira you have by 2 to get the number of US dollars.

Let's try a problem now!

Ms. Hoffman bought a special Turkish towel. It cost 10 TL. How many dollars was it?

10 divided by 2 = 5! The towel is about 5 dollars. Remember, it is not EXACTLY 5 dollars, because we are estimating, but it is close!

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