Direct Subtraction
Short Course
This is a short course (slide show) in the basic concepts of subtracting numbers by directly pulling beads from the bar.
Single Column Subtraction
Some numbers can be subtracted by clearing each of the digits in the number. This is the easiest type of subtraction problem because it only involves one column at a time. In these problems, we will only need to pull beads directly from the bar. These are the general steps you should follow:
Step 1: Enter (set) the largest number. This number is called the minuend
Step 2: Subtract (clear) each digit of the second number which is called the subtrahend. Continue clearing digit from left to right.
Step 3: The result is called the remainder.
That’s all you need to do to solve simple subtraction calculations
Examples
Let's look at some examples:
Example: 874 - 123
Example: 4,839 - 1,524
Example: 269,979 - 214,829