Grades 5-6 Video Solutions 2021-video 2021 5-6/11

Video Transcription

The number 5021972970 is written on a sheet of paper. Julian cuts the sheet twice so that he gets three numbers. What is the smallest sum he can get by adding these three numbers?  Well, this number, once we put all the commas in, has 10 digits. So in order to have the smallest sum, we should use numbers that have the lowest amount of digits.  So we can have one four-digit number and two three-digit numbers to get to that answer. Now the smallest four-digit number that we can get is the one that starts with one.  So we can use 1972.  Conveniently, that also happens to line up with two three-digit segments on either side. 502 and then 970. So 502 plus 1972 plus 970 gives us 3444, and as a result, the answer is B.

Video Summary

The number 5021972970 is written on a sheet of paper. Julian cuts the sheet twice so that he gets three numbers. What is the smallest sum he can get by adding these three numbers? Well, this number, once we put all the commas in, has 10 digits. So in order to have the smallest sum, we should use numbers that have the lowest amount of digits. So we can have one four-digit number and two three-digit numbers to get to that answer. Now the smallest four-digit number that we can get is the one that starts with one. So we can use 1972. Conveniently, that also happens to line up with two three-digit segments on either side. 502 and then 970. So 502 plus 1972 plus 970 gives us 3444, and as a result, the answer is B.

Keywords

smallest sum

three numbers

digit segmentation

number cutting

Julian