Ok I’ll be the first to admit my maths ability is pretty poor beyond basic day to day but on the daughters homework one of the questions was,

4 divided by 10

We don’t allow her to use the calculator (unless the homework allows) however we let her check her answers afterwards. Anyway my answer to the above is 0.4 and so was hers however calculator (Casio fx-85gt plus) it gives the answer as 2 over 5.

So that stumps me as a response! So some help from those in the know please so I can help her. Is the calculator in some weird setting or is that a correct way of writing the answer and if so why?

its in maths mode. press the s-d key and it will display the answer as a decimal

It’s not wrong. 2/5 of 1 is 0.4 😀 This probably doesn’t help!!

Press S->D button.

S for Surd
D for decimal

Yep it was in ‘math’ mode. Next question then if you will be so kind.

What’s ‘math’ mode and also why is 2 over 5 also right for future reference.

Cheers.

Write it down. 4 over 10 which is four tenths. 4/10.

Simplify that because 2/5 is the same as 4/10.

Guessed at it being halved but seemed to simplistic to me! In what situation would you give the answer in that way versus decimalised?

4/10=4/10

But 4 and 10 are both divisble by 2 its standard practice to simplify fraction down to their simplest form*.

So 4/10=2/5.

You could carry out the calculation 2/5 and that would give you your answer 0.4

*fractions are tidy and always correct (1/3 can’t be written in decimal in any useful way as you keep adding 3 on the end) and later on with alot of maths these calculations are only part of a much larger calculation. Without getting to detailed.

You can do a huve amount of very complex mathematics without a calculator. I did a maths degree and never touched mine.

Agree with TTall’s sage advice; encourage her to write down maths questions that aren’t instantly solvable.
Hand – eye – brain – engagement really helps not just with maths either 🙂
As for the original problem this may help: “IS over OF = [the] fraction and IS over OF x 100 = [the] percentage (over meaning divided by)
Happy tuting good on yer Dad

Cheers all for the help, now to explain it to her!

Well done for facing upto that and coming on here.

I do maths home work help for my kids but as my full time job is teaching physics I’m in a good position and just able to help some times with 17 year old son

Are there good laces for parents to get help ith keeping up with maths home work help? Its an important but tricky subject. There was a good radio 4 interview about it with the woman who wrote this book

link

In the end its seems the key is understanding. I know that sound daft but I’ve with my son doing home work where he was so focused on his teachers method that we weren’t able to really discus what was going on. And that’s with him being really quite good at maths. Things are better now he trusts me. But I will die on arse in the nest year on a home work question

Please leave the calculator in Math mode whatever you do. It really helps later when typing in formula and using the fraction key. 2/5 or even 4/10 is a perfectly acceptable answer in exams anyway (the mark scheme will show oe for ‘or equivalent’) unless the question specifically says otherwise.

would 8/20 also be acceptable?

or 16/40, 32/80, 64/160, 128/320, 256/640 etc?

would 8/20 also be acceptable?

or 16/40, 32/80, 64/160, 128/320, 256/640 etc?

Well they are all right aren’t they

would 8/20 also be acceptable?

or 16/40, 32/80, 64/160, 128/320, 256/640 etc?

Depends if the question asked for the answer to be in its simplest form.

Well done for facing upto that and coming on here.

I’ve zero issue with asking, plenty of knowledgeable people on here, and if making myself seem stupid helps me help my daughter then so be it, anyone who thinks negative has more issues than me!

@robbo whilst I can understand your argument/point at this time it’s counter productive if she can’t explain or understand why she has that answer.

Depends if the question asked for the answer to be in its simplest form.

The question was simply written 4 divided by 10 =

Assume after this discussion either 0.4 or 2 over 5 would have been accepted, however the homework wasn’t written it was online as nearly all the homework at her school is so no way of knowing if it would have accepted 2 over 5 or wanted it decimalised. That’s something I will raise on parents evening as I feel the home works give very little guidance or support for parental input/help if as a parent you don’t outright understand the work anyway.

As a result it looks like dad as well as daughter will be making use of BBC Bitesize!

Being able to recognise that dividing is just making a fraction and that decimals are just a special way of writing fractions is important to her understanding of number. And these calculators really help see the link. I wish they used them in primary school more. So many talented math students still resort to long division to give answers as decimals rather than fractions and waste time doing it!

Is it mymaths.co.UK online homework BTW? That is even more frustrating as it needs decimals all the time and expects you to round without telling you too.

Keep talking Maths to her and she’ll do great 🙂

Makes sense and is something I’ll work with, with her.

Yep MyMaths is the one, not impressed with it myself but that’s the way it is it seems, at least on paper you can show workings out and any errors can be picked up and addressed by teacher.

I recently bought a new Casio calculator and had the same problem.

It was something like 43/150.5 = 86/301 ….helpful!

To fix it look at the calculator instructions (which you kept, right :wink:)

Press:
Shift
Mode/setup
1 (mthio)
2 (lineo)

Now if you type in 1/3 you get ‘0.3333333’ instead of ‘1/3’ as an answer.

Next week our daughters primary school is running sessions to show parents how they teach maths so we can help our children with their home work using the same approach. Should be useful. Sometimes I will show her different ways to achieve the answer and ask her which are familiar to understand how they are being taught at school.

I wonder how many of the kids let on that their parents are doing their homework? My parents were both teachers – I had to do my homework myself!!

BBC Bitesize is pretty good for simple explanations of maths. My adult evening class GCSE maths students like Khan Academy, though it sometimes used Americanised versions of terms.

Lots of very intelligent people struggle to help their kids with maths beyond about age 11. My wife, who got an A at GCSE maths, couldn’t help our eldest with a lot of the level 6 SATs maths.

To fix it look at the calculator instructions (which you kept, right :wink:)

Who needs instructions when you have the STW hive mind!

Lady Gresley – Member
I wonder how many of the kids let on that their parents are doing their homework? My parents were both teachers – I had to do my homework myself!!

There is no ‘doing their homework’ going on. This is not understanding why a calculator gave a specific answer and finding out why for future work. I had to do my homework myself too, but some help and input would have been nice though at times.