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especially if you don’t consider yourself to be very good at Math. And, getting comfortable with
arithmetic might just motivate you to dive deeper into other things mathematical.
This article presents nine ideas that will hopefully get you to look at arithmetic as a game, one in
which you can see patterns among numbers and pick then apply the right trick to quickly doing
the calculation.
Don’t be discouraged if the tricks seem difficult at first. Learn one trick at a time. Read the
description, explanation, and examples several times for each technique you’re learning. Then
make up some of your own examples and practice the technique.
As you learn and practice the tricks make sure you check your results by doing multiplication the
way you’re used to, until the tricks start to become second nature. Checking your results is
critically important: the last thing you want to do is learn the tricks incorrectly.
2. Multiplying by 11
To multiply a number by 11 you add pairs of numbers next to each other, except for the numbers
on the edges.
Let me illustrate:
First write down the 6 then add 6 to its neighbor on the left, 3, to get 9.
Write down 9 to the left of 6.
The answer comes from these sums and edge numbers: (3)(3+2)(2+5)(5+4)(4) = 35794.
To multiply by 125, you multipy by 1000 then divide by 8 since 8×125 = 1000. Notice that 8 =
2×2x2. So, to divide by 1000 add three 0’s to the number and divide by 2 three times.
This trick only works if you’ve memorized or can quickly calculate the squares of numbers. If
you’re able to memorize some squares and use the tricks described later for some kinds of
numbers you’ll be able to quickly multiply together many pairs of numbers that differ by 2, or 4,
or 6.
When two numbers differ by two their product is always the square of the number in between
them minus 1.
If two numbers differ by 4 then their product is the square of the number in the middle (the
average of the two numbers) minus 4.
If the two numbers differ by 6 then their product is the square of their average minus 9.
35×35 ends in 25. We get the rest of the product by multiplying 3 by one more than 3. So, 3×4 =
12 and that’s the rest of the product. Thus, 35×35 = 1225.
To calculate 65×65, notice that 6×7 = 42 and write down 4225 as the answer.
6. Multiplying together 2-digit numbers where the first digits are the same and the last
digits sum to 10
Let’s say you want to multiply 42 by 48. You notice that the first digit is 4 in both cases. You
also notice that the other digits, 2 and 8, sum to 10. You can then use this trick: multiply the first
digit by one more than itself to get the first part of the answer and multiply the last digits
together to get the second (right) part of the answer.
An illustration is in order:
To calculate 42×48: Multiply 4 by 4+1. So, 4×5 = 20. Write down 20.
Multiply together the last digits: 2×8 = 16. Write down 16.
Notice that for this particular example you could also have noticed that 42 and 48 differ by 6 and
have applied technique number 4.
Another example: 64×66. 6×7 = 42. 4×6 = 24. The product is 4224.
A final example: 86×84. 8×9 = 72. 6×4 = 24. The product is 7224
Let’s say you want to square 58. Square each digit and write a partial answer. 5×5 = 25. 8×8 =
64. Write down 2564 to start. Then, multiply the two digits of the number you’re squaring
together, 5×8=40.
32×32. The first part of the answer comes from squaring 3 and 2.
3×3=9. 2×2 = 4. Write down 0904. Notice the extra zeros. It’s important that every square in the
partial product have two digits.
Multiply the digits, 2 and 3, together and double the whole thing. 2×3x2 = 12.
Add a zero to get 120. Add 120 to the partial product, 0904, and we get 1024.
56×56. The partial product comes from 5×5 and 6×6. Write down 2536.
One more example: 67×67. Write down 3649 as the partial product.
67×67=3649+840 = 4489.
There are cases when you’re multiplying two numbers together and one of the numbers is even.
In this case you can divide that number by two and multiply the other number by 2. You can do
this over and over until you get to multiplication this is easy for you to do.
Another example: 12×15 = 6×30 = 6×3 with a 0 at the end so it’s 180.
48×17 = 24×34 = 12×68 = 6×136 = 3×272 = 816. (Being able to calculate that 3×27 = 81 in your
head is very helpful for this problem.)
9. Multiplying by a power of 2
To multiply a number by 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or some other power of 2 just keep doubling the product
as many times as necessary. If you want to multiply by 16 then double the number 4 times since
16 = 2×2x2×2.
Practice these tricks and you’ll get good at solving many different kinds of arithmetic problems
in your head, or at least quickly on paper. Half the fun is identifying which trick to use.
Sometimes more than one trick will apply and you’ll get to choose which one is easiest for a
particular problem.