Help with a mental math question

Hi Joel,

Make sure you're learning all of the techniques for fast math. There are so many resources online!

For 80m/9,040 I would:

Round to 80,000,000/9,000

Cut the zeros to 80000/9

Round 9  to 10 so 80000/10

Recognize that while this # is 8,000, I rounded 10% up on the deonominator so a smaller demonimator would be somewhere between 8,500 and 9,000….I'll go with 8,750

(edited)

Hi there,

I think this is an interesting question that may be relevant for many people. I would be happy to share my thoughts on it:

• First of all, I would advise you to divide both numbers by 80, given that 9,040 is a multiple of 80. This would result in 1m / 113 = 1,000k / 113.
• Next, you should think about how often 113 fits inside 1,000, which is almost 9 times. As such, the result will be very close to 9,000 (i.e., 8,849).
• Still, while this might be a calculation that you are expected to perform mentally, it is absolutely fine to perform most calculations in writing.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to address your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hi there,

what I would do:

1) I would ask to the interviewer if possible to approximate to 80M/9k (you are approximating denominator by 0.5% - should not be an issue)

2) Symplifying zeros: 80M/9k = 80 000 000 / 9 000 = 80 000 / 9 

3) Using fractions to further simplify = 80000 / 9 = 1/9 * 8 * 10000 = 0.1111 (you should learn simple fractions “by heart” ½= 0.5 ⅓,= 0.33, ¼ = 0.25, , 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, 1/9) * 8 * 10000 = 8888.9

Hope this helps

Feel free to DM for more details

80m/9040 = ~90m/9k - 10m/9k = 10k - 1.1k = 8.9 k

Hi Joël,

Q: How you would go about calculating 80m/9,040 without using a calculator? 

I would do the following:

1. Ask if you can approximate
2. If that’s possible, simplify it as 80m/9k = 80k/9 ~ 9k
3. Bonus: since the denominator is a bit higher, explain the real final number should be slightly lower

If they don’t want you to approximate, you will have to do the actual math as 8M/904. A possible way to do so is what shown by Cristian.

Best,
Francesco