Multiplication of two numbers is easy, right? At primary school we learn how to do long multiplication like this: Methods similar to this go back thousands of years, at least to the ancient Sumerians ...

Methods similar to this go back thousands of years, at least to the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians. But is this really the best way to multiply two big numbers together? Around 1956, the famous ...

This summer, battle lines were drawn over a simple math problem: 8 ÷ 2(2 + 2) = ? If you divide 8 by 2 first, you get 16, but if you multiply 2 by (2 + 2) first, you get 1. So, which answer is right?

It's possible to solve some multiplication problems in your head. But sometimes it can help to use other methods instead. These include using visual aids, such as an array or place counters, or by ...

The first line of the calculation is the same procedure as multiplying with a single digit number. In the second line we are multiplying by \(20\) (two tens). As we are multiplying by tens the unit's ...

Nikhil Nandan is not your usual 10-year-old. He does not play with a playstation or remote controlled toy cars. His toys are numbers. In a matter of minutes, he can multiply three digit numbers, give ...

This article was originally published by computer historian Ken Shirriff on his blog. Thanks to his kind permission, the article is reproduced here. Eine Übertragung ins Deutsche ist ebenfalls ...