Brush up your maths skills 39 subtracting and dividing large figures. To subtract 200 from 5,000 you simply ignore the zeros that are common to both figures. The subtraction then becomes 50 2 48. Then add the zeros back on and the answer is 4,800. 2 If you need to multiply by 10, 100 or 1,000 the quickest way to do this is to adjust the number of decimal places. For example, to multiply 67.3 metres by 10, move the decimal point one place to the right . . . so 67.3 becomes 673 metres. Similarly, if you are being asked to multiply a figure by 100 or 1,000 you move the decimal points two or three places respectively to the right. 3 When dividing by 10, 100 or 1,000, the quickest way to do this is to adjust the number of decimal places. For instance, if you want to divide $99.9 by 10, move the decimal point one place to the left. So $99.9 becomes $9.99. To divide a