Is 3/4 × 20 more than 20, less than 20, or the same? These free printable worksheets ask that and nothing else: no product is ever calculated, because the whole skill is knowing the answer before you would have one.
“Multiplying makes it bigger” is true for every multiplication a child meets until fifth grade, and then it stops being true. This page is where it stops. A factor above one stretches the number, a factor below one shrinks it, and the sheet asks for that judgment on its own so the belief has somewhere to break.
Why this sheet works
Some factors are worth exactly one and are written as fractions — 4/4, 6/6, 10/10. A bare 1 would give itself away, and “the same” has to be a real option rather than the one nobody picks. Noticing that a fraction is a whole is part of the reading.
How this one works
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Do NOT work them out. Circle what each answer would be.
154 × 60 is ___ 60more thanless thanthe same as
21010 × 10 is ___ 10more thanless thanthe same as
3910 × 30 is ___ 30more thanless thanthe same as
41212 × 12 is ___ 12more thanless thanthe same as
555 × 100 is ___ 100more thanless thanthe same as
612 × 20 is ___ 20more thanless thanthe same as
71 × 60 is ___ 60more thanless thanthe same as
814 × 16 is ___ 16more thanless thanthe same as
944 × 8 is ___ 8more thanless thanthe same as
Times as many · Bigger or smallerAnswer key
1. 54 × 60 is ___ 60 → more than2. 1010 × 10 is ___ 10 → the same as3. 910 × 30 is ___ 30 → less than4. 1212 × 12 is ___ 12 → the same as5. 55 × 100 is ___ 100 → the same as6. 12 × 20 is ___ 20 → less than7. 1 × 60 is ___ 60 → the same as8. 14 × 16 is ___ 16 → less than9. 44 × 8 is ___ 8 → the same as
