Video Transcript
Fill in the blank: three groups of eight equals something.
Let’s sketch a bar model to help us understand what this question is asking us. We have three groups. So we can represent this by drawing three sections to our bar. We’re told that there are three groups of eight. So we could show this by writing the number eight in each of our sections. Well, the blank that we need to fill in is the total of three groups of eight.
So how can we find this total? What can we do to find three groups of eight? Well, there are two ways to find the answer. The first is to use addition. We could find the answer to eight plus eight plus eight. That would be the same as three groups of eight. The second method, which is a little bit quicker, is to use multiplication. We could find the answer to three multiplied by eight or eight multiplied by three to find three groups of eight.
As it is slightly quicker, let’s use this method. Perhaps, you know the multiplication factor already. But if not, let’s count in eights to find the answer. One group of eight or one multiplied by eight is eight. Two eights are 16. And three eights are 24. And so the missing number is 24. Three groups of eight equals 24.
