Two bars, and the gap

Before you read anything

Achen and Okello have 26 exercise books between them, and Achen has 8 more. How many has Okello?

Try it with the numbers alone first. Notice how quickly you get stuck.

Draw it and it falls open

Two bars, lined up at the left. The eight is the overhang. Take it off and eighteen is left, in two equal bars — nine each.

Take the difference off the total. What is left is two bars the same length, and halving is the last thing you do rather than the first.

Lined up at the left

:x nutshell-comparison-bar

Two bars, one above the other, starting at the same edge. The difference is the overhang — a length you can point at.

Starting them at the same edge is not tidiness. It is what turns "8 more" from a sentence you have to hold in your head into a :piece of bar you can see.

The bar you already had

Module 1 cut a bar into two parts. This is two of those bars side by side, and the total across them is the same whole it always was.

Musa

did $26 \div 2$ and got thirteen each

Musa halved before he took the difference off. Thirteen each would mean neither has more than the other, and the question says one does.

Check yourself

Six to try

Draw the two bars before you write a single number. Mark what you know on them — the arithmetic afterwards is module 1.

1

Wasswa has $20$ pencils. Apio has $2$ more. How many do they have altogether?

2

Apio has $4$ more pencils than Wasswa, and there are $26$ altogether. Which drawing shows that?

3

Zawadi and Kato have $10$ bricks between them. Zawadi has $2$ more than Kato. How many does Kato have?

4

Apio and Wasswa have $14$ pencils between them. Apio has $4$ more than Wasswa. How many does Wasswa have?

5

Achen and Okello have $26$ exercise books between them. Achen has $8$ more than Okello. How many does Okello have?

6

Nakato has $2$ times as many sweets as Musa. Together they have $45$. How many does Musa have?

Two bars, and the gap · page 1 of 3 Print it

Two bars, and the gap · page 2 of 3 Print it

Two bars, and the gap · page 3 of 3 Print it

Show that you have it

Total and difference

One gives you a difference and one gives you a multiple. Both are two bars, and both fall open once they are drawn.

1

Nakato and Musa have $44$ sweets between them. Nakato has $8$ more than Musa. How many does Musa have?

2

Nakato has $5$ times as many sweets as Musa. Together they have $72$. How many does Musa have?

Next: Before, and after The whole thing on one page