Learn Your 9 Times Tables

Hello Friends,

Today I'm going to teach you a trick for learning most of your 9x tables really speedily! No mental maths is involved, it's all about counting your fingers (and thumbs, but just think of them as fingers for this). You'll need to know your left from your right to be able to do use this method. If you're not sure on this, you can look back at my last post where I've given you an easy trick for remembering that too.

Put up your hands in front of you with your thumbs next to one another. Imagine that each finger has a number from 1 to 10. 1 is the little finger on your left hand and 10 is the little finger on your right hand.

Now let's start with a simple multiplication: 2 x 9.

Whatever number you are multiplying 9 by, you'll need to put that finger down, so put up your fingers and then put down your second finger on your left hand (finger number 2).

You can see that there is one finger to the left of that one and 8 fingers to the right of it. You get the answer by simply placing those numbers next to each other, so 2 x 9 = 18!

Now let's try a different one. 4 x 9. You'll need to put the fourth finger on your left hand down. Now you have three fingers to the left of this one and six fingers to the right. If you put 3 and 6 next to one another that gives you 36.  So 4 x 9 = 36.

Let's try multiplying 9 by an even bigger number. Let's go for 7 x 9.  Put your fingers up in front of you and put down your seventh finger (this time it will be on your right hand). You can see that you have six fingers to the left of this one and three to the right of it, so the answer is 63.

Now try multiplying 9 by some of the numbers we haven't done yet. I'll write the answers down below so that you can check that you're doing it correctly.

1 x 9 = 9

2 x 9 = 18

3 x 9 = 27

4 x 9 = 36

5 x 9 = 45

6 x 9 = 54

7 x 9 = 63

8 x 9 = 72

9 x 9 = 81 

Unfortunately, you'll need to remember the answers for the rest of the 9 x table as you will run out of fingers if you go beyond 9 x 9, but this trick should give you a good headstart on your 9 x table. And just in case you want to surprise your parents with how quickly you've learnt them, I'll include the answers to the rest of the 9 x table in case you want to memorise them.

10 x 9 = 90

11 x 9 = 99

12 x 9 = 108

Oh and by the way, remember the competition we're running at the moment where you can win your very own stuffed toy version of ME, Whizz!

Whizz :)