The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1631: Borrowing a One
Engines of Our Ingenuity

The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1631: Borrowing a One

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 19, 20263 min

Episode: 1631 Learning to subtract 49 from 62: more than meets the eye. Today, what is 49 from 62?

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Today, what is 49 from 62?

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

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A1 27%A2 44%B1 22%B2 7%C1 0%
  • 93% of the words are B1 or easier.
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  • 22 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

This is the Engines of Our Ingenuity, made possible by the friends of KUHF, Houston. Today, what is 49 from 62? The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

0:22

A New York Times piece by Richard Rothstein got my attention. He talks about a battle going on in math education. Look at a simple second-grade problem, he says. What's 62 minus 49?

0:34

Since we have to take 9 from the smaller number 2 in the right-hand column, we borrow a 1 from the 6 and turn the 2 into a 12. Two schools of thought collide over how we should explain this process to 7-year-olds. Most American teachers will say, 2 and 6 are neighbors.

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