From: Loyd <loydlin@aol.com>
To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion
Date: 2002101811:27:31
Subject: Re: Re:Front end estimation

I agree that front end estimation has its utility.  For instance,
dividing a multi-digit number by a multi-digit divisor.  Say you
wanted to divide 8678 by 421:
     ______
421 )8678

This might be easy for an adult, but a young kid might not see that
there are two 421's in 867.  If you are a kid, you would use front end
estimation and ask how many 400's are in 867.  He/she would see that
there are two.  The next thing they could do is multiply 421 by 2 to
make sure the product is less than 867.


I believe this would be called front end estimation.  Actually, I just
call it rounding to the most significant digit (MSD).

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