Catelyn Nieves 10/21/13

700 Math
Dealing Down Game

In the game Dealing Down we have to use any operations we want once, in order
to get the smallest possible answer with the 4 cards we have dealt. Who ever gets the
smallest answer is the winner of the game. In this game we have to focus a lot about the
order of operations and have to remember a lot about the commutative properties and
distributive properties. For example if you dont follow order of operations you will get
an incorrect answer.
There are many operations with positive and negative numbers but there are also
rules, for example: positive + positive = positive, negative + negative = negative. The
rules for subtraction are: ( a - b = positive if a > b) ( a - b =negative if a < b) ( a - b = zero
if a = b) The rules for multiplication are: ( a x b = positive) ( -a x -b = positive). The rules
for division are: (a b = positive if b < a ) (a b = negative if a < b). Those rules help
you in the game because if you had no rules then you would have messed up your adding,
multiplying, subtracting and dividing because without those rules you wouldnt know
how.
The order of operations is very important because almost all of the time the order of
operations are memorized by PEMDAS, (parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division,
addition, subtraction. The big problem with PEMDAS is it tells you to do multiplication
before division and addition before subtraction. This is actually untrue because in a math
problem you can do whichever operation comes first. This is only true for multiplication/
division or addition/subtraction. For example of division come up before multiplication in
an equation you do division because that came first. If you can memorize that then
PEMDAS could help you but its actually PEM/DA/S. That is important because without
those order of operations you would mess up the answer because you cant just read the
equation left to right and do the operations in that order. The order of PEM/DA/S is:
P = parenthesis
E = exponents
M/D = multiplication/division
A/S = addition/subtraction
The commutative properties of addition and multiplication mean when the order of
the numbers in any equation can be changed around or reversed. For example a+b can
also be reversed to b+a because of the commutative property of addition. This is also the
same with negative numbers because if a was negative and b was positive you would
get the same answer even if the numbers were changed around. The commutative
property of multiplication is the exact same thing as commutative property of addition.
Just different operations of course, you could reverse a and b even if it is
multiplication because of commutative property of multiplication. They can help you add
and subtract rational numbers because now you wont get confused when you are adding
or multiplying or even think you can only have the numbers one way.
Distributive property of multiplication over addition and subtraction is when you
are able to change or write the number sentence differently to make the equation simpler.
For example ab+ac = a(b+a) in this example you are changing the equation or
distributing/giving the numbers so it makes it more simple. This is the same thing as
multiplication over subtraction. But you have to pay attention and make sure you dont
change the order of the subtraction part of the problem because then the new equation
will not be equal. For Example ab-ac equals a(b-c) not a(c-b) unless c and b are the same
number because then you will always get 0 for that part of the question. That is a problem
(changing a and b if they arent equal) because 5-2=3 but if you got mixed up and
changed it to 2-5 you would get -3 not +3.
Overall I learned from playing the game and writing the report that it is important
to remember the order of operations the commutative and distributive properties so I can
get the smallest answer. From PEM/DA/S to changing equations to make them more
simple and easy to understand. This has taught me many ways to make math a little easier
and more understanding.