When we do accounts multiplicationwith numbers that have more than two digits, it is common to leave one or more empty spaces.
But do you know why we leave these spaces empty? Are they indispensable? Can you do the multiplication without empty spaces?
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Read on to find out the answers to all these questions!
Let's explain with an example.
Calculate 11 x 12
We multiply the 11 by 2 and then multiply the 11 by 1.
11 x 2 = 22 → we write it under the dash.
11 x 1 = 11 → we write below the previous result, leaving a space on the right.
Finally, we add, obtaining the value 132.
But why do we leave this space? We leave the space to get the correct answer, in a practical way!
Note that 12 = 10 + 2 → one ten plus two ones.
So, multiplying 11 by 12 is the same as separately multiplying 11 by 10 and 11 by 2 and adding the results.
11 x 10 = 110
11 x 2 = 22
Adding these results: 110 + 22 = 132. Therefore, 11 x 22 = 132.
In the practical method, this result is only obtained with space. Otherwise, we would get 33, and that would be wrong, as we already saw that 132 is correct.
If the empty spaces confuse you when performing the sum of the multiplications, know that this can be avoided by simply adding a zero in each space.
This works because, in reality, each space actually corresponds to a zero, we already saw this when we did the decomposition of the number 12 before doing the multiplication.
So your account with zero added will be correct:
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