Missing Factors Multiplication Worksheets
This is a prealgebra type of skill that serves as a great baby step towards working on solving equations. We are simply learning to determine the value of a missing factor. You are given a product and a multiplier; you just need to find the multiplicand. We also reinforce the concept of counter operations. This concept is brought forth by addition and subtraction. Because it is easy to relate those two operations to counting, which is the foundation that students built up from, they can easily see how those two operations counter one another. It is a little more difficult for students to see how these other operations counter one another. I do find that students capture this skill fairly quickly with a little bit of practice. These worksheets and lessons help students learn to identify missing factors in multiplication problems with ease.
Aligned Standard: 6.EE.B.7
- Step-by-Step Lesson- Time to start the process of learning one step algebra.
- Guided Lesson - We go back to a horizontal start format.
- Guided Lesson Explanation - It is a really good idea to get into the habit of placing your own variable in the blank space.
- Practice Worksheet 1 - A horizontal orientation of the products. It mirrors the guided lesson.
- Practice Worksheet 2 - If students can rocket through this, they have mastered the basic skill.
- Missing Factor 5-Pack - A lot of great practice sheets for you to work through.
- Answer Keys - These are for all the unlocked materials above.
Homework Sheets
The first two sheets focus on the horizontal format and the last one is in a vertical format.
- Homework 1 - This is the first step towards products solved by algebra.
- Homework 2 - Start every problem by understanding what the problem is telling us.
- Homework 3 - If you have an equal symbol, you have an equation.
Practice Worksheets
We run the inverse to the homework sheets. Start with two verticals and end off with an horizontal.
- Practice 1 - You mathematically do whatever you want to an equation as long as you do the same thing to both sides of the equal sign.
- Practice 2 - When we are tackling finding missing parts of an equation all that we need to do is work on getting the unknown factor by itself.
- Practice 3 - If we reverse the operation that is being applied to the unknown number, we will get the unknown number by itself.
Math Skill Quizzes
One of each format (orientation) to make sure they have this skill in hand.
- Quiz 1 - I also like to replace the blank line with a symbol (#).
- Quiz 2 - I also like to replace the (x) with the standard multiplication symbol (●).
What is Missing Factors Multiplication?
Generally, in a multiplication operation, you are given two numbers and are supposed to multiply them and find out their product. In operations such as this, we define three different parts in the equation. The multiplier is the number of groups present. The multiplicand is the number found in each group. The product is what you get when you perform the operation. So it would follow this skeleton: multiplier x multiplicand = product.
Missing factors multiplication is a bit different. A missing factor problem provides you with a number and the answer it will produce upon being multiplied by another number (the factor). Hence, as the name implies, in missing factor multiplication, you have to find out the number that will produce the given answer upon being multiplied by the other given number. You are simply looking for the multiplier that was used to get the indicated product.
There is a simple technique for doing that. Since division is a counter operation, you can simply divide the given product by the multiplicand that is present. The division will produce that missing factor because division and multiplication are reciprocals of each other. Here is how it is done:
A typical multiplication operation can go like 9 x 3 = ___. Calculating the answer, in this case, can be pretty simple. All you have to do is multiply 9 by 3, and you get an easy answer of 27. In the case of missing factor multiplication, the sum will be 9 x ___ = 27. Here you have to guess the number that upon being multiplied by 9 gave the answer of 27 or simply divide 27 by 9 to give the answer of 3. Here was a quick guide on what is missing factors multiplication and how it is done.