Shortcuts and insightful tricks should of course be encouraged, but learning a standard way of translating assignments into a basic arithmetic reduction would s

Shortcuts and insightful tricks should of course be encouraged, but learning a standard way of translating assignments into a basic arithmetic reduction would support the notion that it is all numbers of the same kind which can be handled with the same basic operations: 20% more than 70 = 70 + 20% of 70 = 70 + 20/100*70 = 70 + 20*70/100 = 70 + 1400/100 = 70 + 14 = 84 30% less than 1/5 = 1/5 - 30% of 1/5 = 1/5 - 30/100*1/5 = 1/5 - 30*1/100/5 = 1/5 - 30/(100*5) = 1/5 - 30/500 = 100/500 - 30/500 = (100 - 30)/500 = 70/500 = 7/50 = 14/100 = 0.14 10% more than 3.4 = 3.4 + 10% of 3.4 = 3.4 + 10/100*3.4 = 3.4 + 10*3.4/100 = 3.4 + 34/100 = 3.4 + 0.34 = 3.73