What is Multiplicative Comparison?
Multiplicative comparison means comparing two things or sets that need multiplication..
For example, Sam has twice as many balloons as Sid has.
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Sid as 3 balloons |
Sam has twice as many balloons as Sid has. So, number of balloons with Sam = 2 × 3 = 6 |
A multiplicative comparison problem can be defined as a problem in which:
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Two verbal statements are used to compare two set of items, and
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It determines a multiplication equation.
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The equation includes numbers and alphabet, in which the alphabet is the variable
A building is 18 feet tall and the building is three times Jerry’s height. How tall is Jerry?
Let Jerry’s height be “h”
Height of the building = 18 ft which is 3 times Jerry’s height, that is, 3 times h
Therefore, 18 = 3 × h
Dividing both sides by 3, we get:
18 ÷ 3 = 3 × h ÷ 3
6 = h
h = 6 ft
Hence Jerry is 6 ft tall.
Multiplicative comparison problems usually use phrases like:
- Times as many (3 times as many candies)
- Times more (5 times more apples)
- Times as much (7 times as much as the blue ribbon)
- Times as large (10 times as large as a brick)
Here’s an example of how a multiplicative comparison word problem can be solved using comparison bar models.
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Fun Facts
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