Skill: Subtract money amounts in cents

Explanation and Free Practice Resources

The learner understands that money amounts expressed in cents are whole-number quantities and finds the difference between amounts, including cases requiring regrouping across tens, such as 73¢ − 28¢. Place-value notation and a number line can represent the quantities and make the difference meaningful as the amount remaining or the distance between values; the scope is whole-cent amounts, typically through 100¢, not decimal dollars, fractional cents, or larger financial calculations.

Detailed Explanation: Subtract money amounts in cents

Cents are whole numbers, so subtract them just like other two-digit numbers.

Example: Find (73¢−28¢)(73\text{¢} - 28\text{¢}).

  1. Line up the numbers by place value:
73−28\begin{array}{r} 73\\ -28\\ \hline \end{array}
  1. Start with the ones place. You cannot take 88 ones from 33 ones, so regroup 11 ten as (10)(10) ones.

    • (73)(73) becomes 66 tens and (13)(13) ones.
  2. Subtract the ones:

13−8=513-8=5
  1. Subtract the tens:
6−2=46-2=4
  1. Put the digits together:
73−28=4573-28=45

So,

73¢−28¢=45¢\boxed{73\text{¢}-28\text{¢}=45\text{¢}}

The answer means that after taking away (28)(28) cents from (73)(73) cents, (45)(45) cents remain.

Learn by doing: Subtract money amounts in cents

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Coin Math - Subtract - Coins Minus Amount (Pictures)


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