Modeling Base Ten
We can model base ten concepts the same way we did in base five; we just regroup in tens instead of fives. The base ten whole numbers can be modeled by the following pieces:
You can imagine how the piece pattern will grow to the left, we just keep grouping ten of the same piece together into bigger pieces. Can you imagine what happens if we want to extend the pattern to the right? What will those pieces look like?
In our number system, we use the decimal point to seperate the numbers that are smaller than a unit from the from the ones that are whole numbers of units.
We can use these models to represent a wide variety of numbers. Try representing these numbers with base ten pieces or sketches...
Regrouping is just as important a concept in base ten as it is in base five. Practice regrouping these collections of pieces until no more regrouping is possible.
In the next few lessons, we'll explore basic operations in base ten, and some fraction and decimal relationships