Video Transcript
Hannah is 52 years old and Charlotte is 37. What is the sum of their ages?
First, we need to highlight the key numbers and words in the question. Hannah is 52 and Charlotte is 37. The question asks us to find the sum of the ages.
In math, the word sum means the total of two or more numbers. If we’re finding the total of two or more numbers, do we use plus or minus? Sum is another way of saying add the numbers together.
Now we can write our equation: 52 plus 37. Let’s use column addition and a place value chart to help us calculate the answer. 52 has five tens and two ones, plus 37, 37 has three tens and seven ones.
We always start in the ones column. Here we have to add two plus seven, which makes nine. Next, we move over into the tens column and calculate five plus three, which is eight.
52 plus 37 equals 89. Hannah is 52 and Charlotte is 37. The sum of their ages is 89. When we recognized that sum means add together, we calculated our answer using column addition.
