I took a trek down to an awesome elementary school in fabulous South Austin to find the perfect team of mathematicians to assist me in this week's project. All three of these brilliant boys are smart, good-looking, crazier than a clown, and have 8 fingers and 2 thumbs. Therefore, we can proceed with our Simple Saturday Super Simple Multiplication Memory Game.
Note: I find the boy in the center particularly charming to behold, don't you?
To practice your Table of 9's first lay both hands on the table. Count all your digits. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. All there? Good.
Okay, let's try 7 X 9. Oh, how I wonder what the answer to this equation might be. Don't you? Let's turn to the digits, shall we?
Our multiplier in this equation is 7. Let's simply count fingers, beginning from the left pinky, moving sequencially to the right hand. Here we go. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7.
Okay, fold the 7th finger under, like this. Go ahead...it won't hurt ya.
Here's the slightly tricky part.
Think of the bent finger as a quantity divider. Group all of the fingers to the left of the bent pointer as a whole number. Let's count them. 1-2-3-4-5-6. There are 6 digits to the left of the bent one, correct?
All right...Let's do the same thing for the fingers to the right of the bent finger. Let's group them together as one quantity. How many numbie nails are there? 1-2-3. That's it...3. Therefore, my friends, the answer to the equation 7 X 9 = 63!
Buddy, this trick works every ding-dang time! Check out 6 X 9 = 54.
How about 9 X 9 =81? Cool, huh?
What about 1 X 9 = 9? Will that work? Check it out!
Pretty slick, isn't it? I thought you'd like it.