This is a great way of multiplying any two numbers between 6 and 10.
This method is known as "Indian Multiplication"
First you need to imagine your fingers on each hand are numbered like this:
Now suppose you want to multiply 8 x 9, you touch together the 8 finger from
one hand and the 9 finger of the other hand.
You work out the "tens" and "units" separately:
- To get the "tens" you count up the fingers that are touching and all
the fingers underneath. Here you'll see there are 7 fingers that count altogether, so
that gives us 7 tens or 70.
- To get the "units" you look at the fingers on each hand
above the two touching fingers, and multiply these numbers together. Here you'll see 2
fingers on one hand and one finger on the other, so you get 2x1=2 units
- That gives us a final answer of 70 +2 =72.
It works! Because 8x9 DOES make 72!
Let's try 7x6
- To get the "tens" we see there are 3 fingers that count altogether, so
that gives us 30.
- To get the "units" we see there are 3 fingers on one hand that count
and 4 fingers on the other. We get 3x4=12 units
- Our answer is 30 +12 =42.
Check it - and you'll find that 7x6 DOES make 42!
Try this out with other numbers on the tables. It's brilliant!
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