An unusual way of adding and subtracting numbers in a column from left to right is being discussed on the Web

Recently, a video went viral on TikTok demonstrating how to add numbers in a column from left to right. Video by Howie Hua@howie_hua), he works at California State University at Fresno, where he teaches mathematics to prospective elementary school teachers. According to him words, this way of solving examples is clearly underestimated.

How to use it, Hua demonstrated by the example of the sum of 245 and 567. In the usual way of solving, we start by adding the units and units first, moving tens, then tens and tens, moving hundreds, and finally hundreds and hundreds. All this is done sequentially, from right to left. The result is in the image below.

But math isn't strict rules, so there's nothing stopping you from deviating from traditional ways and using alternative ones, Hua notes. One of them involves adding in reverse order, where hundreds are added to hundreds, tens to tens, and ones to ones. After that, all the numbers are added again. Here's what it looks like.

Stills: Howie Hua/TikTok

In the comments, many users noted that this method looks not only simpler, but also clearer, especially in terms of number capacity. Others said they always felt that way, even though their teachers didn't like it.

One of the commenters on Twitter asked, does this method work with the difference of numbers? And Houi Hua showed that subtraction can also be done from left to right. In this case, negative values ​​come into play, but otherwise the principle is the same - everything is done taking into account the bit depth.

Stills: Howie Hua/TikTok

And how do you like this way of solving examples? Did you know about it? Write in the comments.