Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2008 December 28

= December 28 =

math question
If I gave 114 million families 114 million dollars per family, how much money would I have spent???? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.31.249.200 (talk) 13:27, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, 114 000 000*114 000 000=114*114*1000000*1000000. Or just use a calculator.  Taemyr (talk) 13:31, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I would suggest you to try with this--PMajer (talk) 14:13, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't really think a calculator is nessecary for this, but it makes everything a lot faster. If I didn't have a calculator, I would split the number into parts. First, I would break the equation into 1142(1,000,0002). I know that the square of 1 million, or 1x106 is one "North American" trillion, or 1x1012. Next, I would deal with the 1142. First I'd simplicify it to 100x100, then 114x100, then finally 114x114. After I get the result, I would then multiply that number by 1,000,000,000,000. If you are allowed to use a calculator, remember that many calculators don't fit that many digits, and most scientific calculators display the result as a number multiplied by ten to the power of another number. Hope this helps. Thanks. ~ A H  1 (TCU) 17:41, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Dealing with 1142 can be done even easier. I know 112=121, so I can take 1142=(110+4)2, and we know then that this is equal to 1102+2*110*4+42. Taemyr (talk) 19:27, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * You can easily calculate how many dollars have been spent, but money is supposed to be something that can be exchanged for goods and services. The dollar would be drastically devalued by such extravagance so you'd have spent the money but they wouldn't have received most of it. Dmcq (talk) 19:25, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Exact, what's the point of giving me the 144 millions dollars if you also give them to my neighbours? --PMajer (talk) 22:21, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Incidentally, the answer is more money than there is on Earth. StuRat (talk) 10:29, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

May I ask what is the point of this question, apart from finding the square of a number. 122.107.203.230 (talk) 22:28, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Maybe to pose a question that cannot be plugged into an average calculator so that the student is forced to either a: do it the long way, or b: figure out how to use a shortcut like separating the problem into 114*114 and 10^6 * 10^6 and then multiplying those answers to get the correct result. 152.16.15.23 (talk) 02:22, 2 January 2009 (UTC)