Arithmetic Grade Four

Lesson Thirty-five: Subtraction

Study this problem: 


     2000
    - 555
   --------
To complete this problem we will first have to do a lot of borrowing:
  1. Borrow from the thousands column for the hundreds column
  2. Borrow from the hundreds column for the tens column
  3. Borrow from the tens column for the ones column
After we've done all this borrowing we will have:

If we are unsure of our answer we can check our answer to see if it is reasonable. Since 2000 - 555 is going to have an answer close to the answer for 2000 - 500, we can feel comfortable if our answer is close to it. Since 2000 - 500 equals 1500 and the answer we got for 2000 - 555 is 1445, we can feel that we at least computed a reasonable answer.

On the next page are some problems for you to try.

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