General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why Would a Math Teacher Punish a Child for Saying 5 x 3 = 15? [View all]npk
(3,660 posts)If i have 5 sets of three apples each and I want to distribute those three apples to five different people, then I show that distribution as follows: 3+3+3+3+3. It's not the same thing if I gave 5 apples to three people, if my objective was to sort those apples evenly amongst 5 people. There is a difference. 3 multiplied by whatever means that you are multiplying the first number by the second number. This is important in teaching kids how to calculate distribution equations that can be very important in certain fields. It may seem trivial to you, but it's not. Multiplying 3 by 5 is not the same thing as multiplying 5 by 3, if your goal is to distribute a certain set or constant number of items evenly over a certain number of times.