What does regroup mean in math terms?

Answer 1

Back in the day, regrouping in addition was called "carrying" and regrouping in subtraction was called "borrowing." I think "regrouping" is a better term for all of it. These problems might be easier to visualize if you copy them vertically.

Example: 56 - 39

Just looking at it, you might think there's a problem with subtracting nine from six until you realize that 56 is 5 tens and 6 ones which is the same thing as 4 tens and 16 ones. Now you can subtract 9 from 16, leaving 7 in the ones place and 3 from 4, (the regrouped 5) leaving 1 in the tens place.

56 - 39 = 17

Example: 45 + 28

5 + 8 is 13, which won't fit in the ones place, so we leave 3 of the ones there and regroup the ten other ones into one ten which we add in the tens column. 1 + 4 + 2 = 7

45 + 28 = 73