Some of Gwilym's maths homework

He's 10. He has sums like this to do:

5498 x 5327. They do them by "decomposing" the numbers and forming expressions like this:

= (5000 + 400 + 90 + 8) x (5000 + 300 + 20 + 7)

Then you just multiply everything in the first brackets by everything in the second brackets. Then sort the results into descending order, then add them up. As long as you don't forget any of the numbers it works beautifully.

We never did sums like that when I was 10, but I think it is a good idea because it prepares the way for when you multiply expressions in algebra and have to remember to multiply everything in the first brackets by everything in the second.

And all this in French!

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