Thursday, September 8, 2011

Power Tower

Here's how to build a Power Tower:
A Power Tower is a list of the first nine multiples of a number, which can be very helpful when beginning multi-digit division. To be super efficient, there is a strategic way to build the tower so that it doesn't take much time. Here's the top secret strategy:

Example: Let's build a Power Tower for 37 so that we can solve the problem 2886 divided by 37.

1 - 37 (This is the number we are dividing by)
2 - 74 (Double the first multiple, 30 + 30 = 60; 7 + 7 = 14; 60 + 14 = 74)

3 - 111 (The sum of the first 2 multiples, 30 + 70 = 100; 7 + 4 = 11; 100 + 11 = 111)
4 - 148 (Double the second multiple, 70 + 70 = 140; 4 + 4 = 8; 140 + 8 = 148)
5 - 185 (Split the tenth multiple in half, 37 x 10 = 370; 1/2 of 300 = 150; 1/2 of 70 = 35;
150 + 35 = 185)

6 - 222 (Double the third multiple, 100 + 100 = 200; 10 + 10 = 20; 1 + 1 = 2; 200 + 20 + 2=
222)

7 - 259 (The sum of the sixth and first multiples, 222 + 30 = 252; 252 + 7 = 259)
8 - 296 (Double the fourth multiple; 140 + 140 = 280; 8 + 8 = 16; 280 + 16 = 296)
9 - 333 (The sum of the eighth and first multiples, 296 + 30 = 326; 326 + 7 = 333)

Note: Complete the green multiples first, the orange second, the red third, and the blue last.

Looking at our tower, we know that the 7th multiple of 37 is 259, so the 70th multiple will be 2590. This is the closest we can get to 2886 without going over, using a landmark multiple of 37. The difference in 2886 and 2590 is 296. Looking at our Power Tower, we can see that the 8th multiple of 37 is 296. So, 2886 divided by 37 equals 70 + 8 = 78.

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