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Chapter 4 · NCERT Class 5 Maths Mela

We the Travellers — II

The journey continues — now we add up kilometres and rupees, and take away the change. Line up the places, carry and borrow carefully, and always make a quick estimate to check your answer. Tap each idea to explore it.

🧳 3 topics⏱ ~20 min📝 10-question quiz
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Play with it

Six ideas for journey sums

Adding, taking away and estimating with bigger numbers. Tap each term to see what it means, with a travel example.

Explore · Journey sumstap a term

Learn

The three big ideas

  • Write numbers with the same places under each other — ones under ones, tens under tens.
  • Add or subtract one column at a time, starting from the ones. Carry when a column adds to 10 or more; borrow when the top digit is too small to subtract.
  • Keep the units the same — only add kilometres to kilometres, rupees to rupees.

Worked example. A bus runs 12,450 km in May and 8,675 km in June. Total?

Line up and add: 12,450 + 8,675. Ones 0+5=5; tens 5+7=12 (write 2, carry 1); hundreds 4+6+1=11 (write 1, carry 1); thousands 2+8+1=11 (write 1, carry 1); ten-thousands 1+0+1=2. Total = 21,125 km.

  • Estimate means round the numbers to tidy ones, then add or subtract quickly in your head.
  • An estimate is your safety check: if the exact answer is far from your estimate, look for a mistake.
  • Round to the nearest hundred or thousand depending on how big the numbers are.

Worked example. Estimate 4,980 + 3,015, then compare with the exact answer.

Round: 4,980 → 5,000 and 3,015 → 3,000, so the estimate is about 8,000. The exact sum is 7,995 — very close, so the answer is sensible.

  • Read the problem and ask: do I need to put together (add) or take away / find the difference (subtract)?
  • Words like “total” or “altogether” hint at adding; “change”, “left” or “how much farther” hint at subtracting.
  • Solve step by step, then check against an estimate.

Worked example. You pay ₹500 for a meal that costs ₹275. How much change do you get?

“Change” means subtract: 500 − 275 = ₹225. Quick check: 500 − 300 ≈ 200, so ₹225 makes sense.

Common mix-up: forgetting to keep units lined up — mixing rupees with paise, or adding kilometres to metres. Always make the units match before you add or subtract.

Where you’ll meet it

Sums on a trip

Planning a budget

Before a journey, families add up travel, food and stay. A quick estimate tells you roughly how much to carry — then exact sums keep the spending on track.

Getting change

At a shop or ticket counter you pay a round amount and get change back. Subtraction tells you the exact coins and notes to expect.

Total distance

Over several days, distances add up. Adding them gives the whole journey; subtracting compares which leg was longer.

Check yourself

Quick quiz

Ten friendly questions — mostly multiple-choice with one little story problem — to check that you can use addition, subtraction and estimation on a journey.

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Interactive built to the OpenMAIC approach (THU-MAIC, MIT). Content from the NCERT Class 5 Maths Mela textbook (ncert.nic.in).

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