Wednesday, March 11, 2009

multiply an astronaut by a ninja....

presenting the official creebobby comics archetype times table:

brought to you by jacob borshard's art and music.

my only complaint is that it's a 10x10 table - while normal times tables go to 12! although i'm not really sure why they go to 12. anyone know? do all kids everywhere in the world have to memorize to 12 x 12? why not stop at 10, or go to 13?

i always thought numbers times 11 were fun because the answers all have symmetry: 55, 88, 121... but numbers times 12 were harder to memorize because it took me longer to find a recognizable pattern!!

and anything times three is great, although i didnt know it (and it wouldnt have helped) when i was trying to memorize my times tables. you can tell if big numbers are divisible by three, by simply adding up the value of the digits. if the digits add up to a number that is divisible by three, then the whole number is divisible by 3! 8125 is not divisible by three, but 1905 and 9501 are!

its a neat little math trick, even if you don't get to use it very often!


Private said...

Pink and green on the black back ground was a nice choice. I like your blog.

Space Mountain Man said...

Not really.

Anonymous said...

cool post. Anything times 9 too is great. It's like the sum of the two numbers should give you 9. 0+9=9, 1+8=9, 2+7=9, 3+6=9 ETC.

Prabath said...

I like this blog too. Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

I've always assumed the 12 times table was a British thing because we used to have 12 pennies in a shilling. There are also 12 inches in a foot of course. But now I think about it, why would that be relevant for multiplication?

mrs.missalaineus said...

i teach divisibility to 8 year olds. they love it!

there are rules for 2,4,5,6,8,9 too.

we make them memorize through the twelves at my school because it is easier then trying to make them distribute when multiplying two digit numbers.

great blog!

xxmiss alaineusxx

Viewtiful_Justin said...

This times table is amazing and wonderful! Thanks for sharing!

kevinwparker said...

My complaint is that it's merely two-dimensional - I want to see a Lincoln platypus robot zombie ninja astronaut!

The trick with 3 works for 9 as well. In fact, for any base n it works for n-1 and any factors of n-1.