Calculations made easy

Learning Skills

Introduction:
An understanding of basic maths concepts is needed in Nursing to perform Drug calculations or in Education for the Basic Skills Test. You will also have to work them out without a calculator. We have all been taught to add, subtract, multiply and divide. It should be in the back of your mind somewhere. In this handout we are going to look at shortcuts on how to do the calculations rather than the process of doing the calculation

This sheet will teach you to:

Use shortcuts when performing the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Use shortcuts when working with decimals and fractions.

1. Addition
Order of adding does not matter. Line up your digits. ie all ones in a column, then all tens etc. If a decimal place then you may need to add a zero to make them line up. Can set up an addition table that is similar to the timetables: http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/addition-table.html If numbers are the same you just double. If numbers are close then just double and fix. eg. 5 + 6 double 5 and then add 1 ie. 5 + 6 = 10+1 = 11 eg. 7 + 9 middle number is 8 so double 8.

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2. Subtraction
Order does matter. Line up your digits. ie all ones in a column, then all tens etc. If a decimal place then you may need to add a zero to make them line up. Check your subtraction by adding after. Think of it as an addition. eg 6-2 what plus 2 equals 6? When subtracting 9 the answer will be one more of that digit and one less of the digit before. eg 45-9 One more than 5 is 6, one more than 4 is 3 Answer 36.

3. Multiplication
Note 8 x 3 = 3 x 8. To learn your timetables you may want to print out a table. One example of them can be found at: http://www.mathsisfun.com/tables.html -

Some shortcuts
x2 x4 x8 x5 x6 x9 x 10 x 11 x 12 double the number double and double again double, double and double again last number always 5 or 0 is half of 10, so 5 x 8, work out 8 x 10 = 80, first then half = 40 x 3 then double use your fingers add 0 to the end. For decimal move decimal place one to the right. is a repeat of the digits x10 plus x2.

Numbers ending in zero

If one or both numbers end in zeros then multiply non zero numbers then add on total number of zeros to answer. eg 400 x 60 4 x 6 = 24 so 400 x 60 = 24000.

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4. Division
Dividing is the opposite of multiplication. eg 24 3 Ask What times 3 equals 24? Can check by multiplying back.

How do you know if it is divisible by **?

Divisible by 3 Add the digits up. If the sum of the digits is divisible by 3 then the number is. eg 34272 Add the digits up 3+4+2+7+2=18 Which is divisible by 3 Therefore 34272 is divisible by 3. Divisible by 4 If the last two digits are divisible by 4, then the number is divisible by 4. eg 3412 12 is divisible by 4 Therefore 3412 is divisible by 4 Can just divide by 2 then divide by 2 again. Divisible by 5 If the last digit is 5 or 0 then the number is divisible by 5. Divisible by 6 Check for divisible by 3 then if it is an even number then also divisible by 6. Can divide by 2 then divide by 3. Divisible by 9 If the sum of the digits is divisible by 9 then the number is divisible by 9. eg 1935 1 + 9 + 3 + 5 = 18 which is divisible by 9 Therefore 1935 is divisible by 9 Can divide by 3 then divide by 3 again. Divisible by 10 If the last digit is zero then the number is divisible by 10. To divide by 10 If zero is the last digit then just drop the zero. eg 2560 10 = 256. If last number is non zero then move the decimal place on position to the left. eg 58746 10 = 58746. Divisible by 25 If the last two digits are 00 or 25 or 50 or 75 then the number is divisible by 25. Can divide by 5 and divide by 5 again.

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5. Fractions
Numerator top number Denominator bottom number. For a fraction less than 1, the bigger the difference in the top & bottom number the smaller the number. Simplifying fractions is dividing the top and bottom number by a common factor. Use the hints in the division section to find a common factor. Some of the answers will be expressed in fractions. It is up to you to decide if you want to simplify the fraction first or do the division straight away to get your answer as a decimal.

6. Decimals
Adding and subtracting decimals is the same as whole numbers. However you need to line up the decimal point rather than the last digit. When multiplying decimals, ignore the decimal places, do the multiplication, then put back in the number of decimal places. eg 42 x 35 treat it as 42 x 35 and note that there are two decimal places 42 x 35 = 1470 now give the answer 2 decimal places = 1470 = 147.

7. For more information

Visit our Learning Skills website at http://www.csu.edu.au/division/studserv/my-studies/maths/home Information on arithmetic operations can be found at: http://www.csu.edu.au/division/studserv/my-studies/maths/maths/nursing Other useful websites are available at: http://www.coolmath.com http://nursing.flinders.edu.au/students/studyaids/drugcalculations/page.php?id=1

Copyright
Learning Skills, Charles Sturt University, (June 2010)

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