Lesson 3 — Activity 1: Workplace Multiplication

If you worked in the parts department for an automotive company, you might have to use multiplication as part of your job. 

Multiplying is a quick form of adding numbers by groups. Multiplication is helpful when you want to total a lot of numbers quickly, such as when you might need to figure out how many tires you need to order to replace the tires on multiple trucks.

Example:

A local trucking company has asked for a quotation to replace all 6 tires on each of its 8 trucks. Your parts manager has asked you to check that there are enough tires in stock to do this.

You could add 6 to itself 8 times:

6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 48.

This is time consuming, and you have 7 opportunities to make mistakes!

You could count by 6 for 8 times:

6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48.

In addition to the risk of making a mistake when counting by 6, you have to be sure to count by 6 for only 8 times.

Multiplying is a quick form of adding numbers by groups. In this case, you need 8 sets of 6 tires.

8 x 6 = 48 — You need 48 tires to replace them on all 8 trucks.

Click on the Play button below to watch a video on how to multiply numbers.

Workplace Multiplication — Getting Paid!

Perhaps you already have a part-time job, or plan to have one in the near future. As a worker, you will be paid on an hourly basis. To calculate your weekly pay, you must multiply the hourly wage by the number of hours you work.

For example, you make $13 per hour working at a popular restaurant. You are scheduled to work 25 hours this week, and you want to calculate your weekly pay.

• $13/hour x 25 hours = $325 will be your pay for that week

Click on the Play button below to watch a video on how to multiply a number by a two-digit number!

Self-check!

Digging Deeper!

Click here for some more information on multiplying whole numbers.

Calculator practice!

Use a calculator to multiply the following:

5 × 4 =

Extra Practice!

Click here to download extra practice questions (with answers)!