Quick Unit Pricing

Mental Math · Axiom Academy

Master mental division to instantly compare prices and save money while shopping You're at the grocery store staring at two boxes of cereal. One is a 12 oz box for 3.60, the other is 20 oz for 5.40. Which is the better deal? Most shoppers just grab the cheaper price, but that's not always the smartest choice! The secret? Unit pricing - finding the cost per ounce (or any unit) using mental division. Let's learn how to do this quickly in your head! Let's break down both options and calculate the price per ounce. Watch what happens when we divide the total price by the number of ounces. Dividing 3.60 by 12 or 5.40 by 20 seems hard, right? But here's the trick: work with easier numbers first! For 360 ÷ 12, which mental math approach is easiest? What we're really doing is finding the unit rate - expressing a ratio as a quantity per one unit. Winner: Option B saves you 0.03 per ounce! That's a 10% savings - 0.60 on the 20 oz box! Unit pricing isn't just for cereal - it's everywhere! Use these mental division shortcuts whenever you're comparing: Unit Price Formula Unit Price = Total Price ÷ Total Units. This lets you compare apples to oranges (literally!) by finding the cost per standard unit. Mental Division Tricks Convert to cents, look for factors, and think multiplication backwards. These shortcuts make division fast and easy without a calculator.

This is the written version of the interactive lesson above. See the full Mental Math course.