Question

Explain why it works to break apart a number by place values to multiply

Answer 1

Breaking Apart Strategy is an easy way to find multiplication, even though those are difficult ones. This is a great strategy for breaking apart harder multiplication problems, so the result you get is the same as if you are multiplying the original equation.

For example, suppose you want to get this multiplication:

$8\times 7$

So eight times seven is a tricky one sometimes. Maybe we forget this multiplication so let's break it apart. Therefore, let's break apart seven, that is:

$7=5+2$

This is true because five and two makes seven. Therefore, the new equation is:

$8(5+2)$

Applying distributive property:

$8\times 5+8\times2=40+16=56$

So:

$8\times 7=56$

As you can see the multiplication was obtained in a easy way.