http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html Math 300 Alternative Subtraction Algorithms Dr.

Wilson It is important to realize that the standard algorithms for arithmetic operations are not the only ones. Generally, the standard algorithms have some features that have allowed them to win out over the other algorithms, but quite often other altgorithms will be just as good as the standard ones, and, as a teacher, you will probably encounter students using alternative algorithms. Subtraction is the operation where one is most likely to encounter alternative algorithms. The reason is because each of the following alternative algorithms possess significant advantages over the standard algorithm. Generally they make borrowing or regouping neater, easier, or the last one eliminates it altogether. If you have a student who has learned an alternative algorithm, it is important for the student that you can accept and validate their learning experiences, provided that they have a valid method of handling a problem, and if their method is not valid, then it is important that you can correct it. The following alternative algorithms are taught, and it is possible that you will encounter students using them. The first four deal with the situation where there is a place where the number in the bottom is bigger than the number on top, and you have to borrow or regroup. The last method is more of a fun trick which can be adapted to numbers of any length, but when used in base two provides the basis for a subtraction algorithm used by computers. 1. Standard Algorithm in America 2. Borrow First and Then Subtract 3. Austrian Subtraction 4. Subtract from the Base 5. Three Digit Algorithm

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html Math 300 Alternative Subtraction Algorithms Standard American Algorithm Dr. Wilson The following algorithm for dealing with the case where a digit in the bottom is bigger than the digit in the same place in the top is taught practically universally in America, and has been for quite some time. For example, suppose you want to subtract

When you go to subtract the 7 ones from the 3 ones, you don't have enough ones. However, the top number is bigger than the bottom number, so you can take 7 away from the top number. To get more ones, you need to go to the ten's column.

If we realize that 83 is 8 tens and 3 ones we can represent the 83 with the following picture,

where the three little circles represent ones and the eight cylinders represent containers which each contain ten of the ones. If we try to take 7 ones from the 3 ones that we have, we will need some more ones. To get more ones, we open one of the cylinders to get ten more ones.

In the Standard American Algorithm this was originally called borrowing. More recently people have maintained that borrowing is not the best way of thinking of this process. You aren't going to give the ten ones you borrowed back to the tens. There has been a move on for quite some time to call this process "regrouping". We are regrouping the 8 tens and 3 ones

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html into 7 tens and 13 ones. The notation which is used in the standard algorithm is

Now we can take 7 ones from the 13 ones and 3 tens from the 7 tens that are left after borrowing or regrouping.

We write

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html Math 300 Alternative Subtraction Algorithms Borrow First and Then Subtract Dr. Wilson When subtracting long numbers where there are several places where you have to borrow, most people borrow as they go along. For example

When you borrow from the tens to get enough ones to take away 8 ones you get

Next we go to the ten's place where we also have to borrow or regroup.

When we go to the hundred's place, in this example, we need to borrow or regroup again.

Finally, in the thousand's place we don't need to borrow.

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html That is the way most people use the standard algorithm. But some people do all of their borrowing or regrouping before they do any subtracting. When you look at the problem

you can see that you are going to need to borrow ones from the ten's place

At this point you can see that you are going to need to borrow tens from the hundred's place.

And now you can see that you are going to need to borrow hundreds from the thousand's place.

A nice thing about this method is that, while you will need to do the regrouping from right to left, after you have gotten the regrouping together, you can do the subtraction either from right to left as in the standard algorithm or from left to right. The advantage of algorithms that allow you to procede from left to right is that if you are going to do a subtraction to see if you have overdrawn your bank account, you are probably more interested in how many thousands of dollars you have than in the number which appears in the one's place which is the first thing you find with standard right to left algorithms.

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http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html Math 300 Alternate Subtraction Algorithms Austrian Subtraction Dr. Wilson This algorithm is used in Europe, and if you have students who first learned how to subtract in Europe, they may be using this method. The difference is that, if you have to borrow or regroup, instead of decreasing the digit in the next place on top by one, you increase the digit in the next place on the bottom by one. In our example

instead of changing the 8 to a 7, you change the 5 to a 6. In both methods you change the 3 to a 13. the way this is accomplished notationally is to put the 1 that you would use to make the 13 between the 3 and the 5.

The little one serves two purposes. It tells you that you are subtracting 7 from 13, and you can think of it as being added to the 5 to make a 6 which you subtract from the 8

The justification for the Austrian method is exactly the same as the justification for the standard algorithm. If we look at the picture we used to justify the standard algorithm,

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html

the one ten that we regrouped into 10 ones is an extra ten that has been taken away. As a result, if you count the number of tens that are x'ed out, you will see that there are a total of 6 big x's. People who use the Austrian method are impressed by how much neater it is than the standard algorithm, particularly if you have a long problem. If you consider

the standard algorithm looks like

which is pretty messy with all of the cross outs and rewrites. Even if you do all the cross outs and rewrites in your head so that your paper doesn't get messed up, its a lot to keep in your head. With the Austrian method the problem looks like

and you subtract 8 from 12 to get 4 in the one's place, 7 from 13 to get 6 in the ten's place, 6 from 11 to get 5 in the hundred's place, and 5 from 7 to get 2 in the thousand's place.

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html Math 300 Alternative Subtraction Algorithms The Subtract from the Base Algorithm Dr. Wilson In this method, if you have a place where the bottom number is bigger than the top number, subtract the bottom number from ten and add the result to the top number. Of course when you do this you will also have to make an adjustment in the next place by either decreasing the top digit by one as in the standard algorithm, or increasing the bottom digit by one as in the Austrian method. For example

In the one's place, 7 is bigger than 3. Subtract 7 from 10 getting 3. Add this 3 to the 3 which we find on top and get a 6 in the one's place. Then if you either decrease the 8 by 1 to get 7 and subtract 5 or increase the 5 by 1 to get 6 which you then take from 8, you will get a 2 in the ten's place.

The justification for this method is the same as the justification for the standard algorithm and the Austrian method. If we look at the picture which we used to justify both of those methods

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html we see that after regrouping to get the 13 ones, you could take all 7 of the ones that you are subtracting from the 10 ones that you got from the borrowing or regouping process. After you take the 7 ones from those 10 ones, the 3 ones that are left wind up going with the 3 ones that you started with on top. This method is called the "Subtract from the Base" method because it works in any base. If you are working in base ten, as we are here, then you would subtract the bottom nuber from ten and add it to the top number. If you were working in another base like base 12, you would subtract the bottom number from 12 and add it to the top. The advantage of this method is that it cuts down on the number of subtraction facts that the students have to learn. In the standard approach, students have to have facts like 13 - 7 = 6 memorized. These borrowing facts, as they are called, where the top number is bigger than 10 and the bottom number is bigger than the number in the one's place on top, are probably the most difficult for students to assimilate. One reason would be that the numbers are bigger than the facts that you use when you are not borrowing. Moreover, if the top number is bigger than 10, students will run out of fingers if they try to do it on their fingers. With this method, students need only memorize the borrowing facts where the top number is ten.

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/courses/math_300/groupwork/altsub/de fault.html Math 300 Alternative Subtraction Algorithms Three Digit Trick Dr. Wilson This method works for subtracting three digit numbers. Subtract the bottom number from the top and add it to 999. Of course, if you add the difference between 999 and the bottom number to the top number, you will have a bigger number than the top number, and subtraction is supposed to give you smaller answers. But you can get from here to the correct answer by subtracting 1000 and adding 1. For example

Subtract the bottom number from 999.

Now add 761 to the top number

At this point subtracting 1000 and adding 1 is quite easy

which you should be able to verify as being the correct answer.

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The reason this works is if you look at what we did 999 - 238 + 516 - 1000 + 1 999 + 1 = 1000, which is cancelled out by the step where you subtract 1000 leaving us with our original problem. The advantage with doing this is that you will never have to borrow or regroup if you subtract a 3 digit number from 999. This method can be modified for subtracting numbers of any length. However many digits are in the top number, subtract the bottom number by the number you get by taking that many 9's, and add the difference to the top number. Since the bottom number, being smaller than the top number is further away from the number with all the 9's than the top number, the sum will have one more digit than the top number and that one more digit will be a 1. Split off that 1 and add it to the resulting number and you have the correct answer to the original problem. This method is used in base two to develop a subtraction algorithm for computers.