Talk:Multiplication table

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Interesting to see the illustrated table goes up to 12x12. This is what I learnt in the early 1970s in England, but I suspect most children learn up to 10x10 these days. Can anyone confirm this? --Auximines 14:49, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Nope. Children still learn up to 12*12, in the UK. At least, they did in the early 90s, when I learnt to multiply. Old habits die hard.

Ah, in the old days, people could multiply by 13 and more. Before my time, though. 12x12 would have been standard in the UK up to decimalisation.

Charles Matthews 15:50, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

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[edit] Why do we stop at 12?

My 6 year old daughter now has the challenge of learning her times tables.

I remember when I too had this task.

But - in the age of digits and decimilisation, why do our UK (and perhaps American?) times tables stop at 12?

Is this some hangover from early currency, perhaps 12 pennies in a shilling?

[edit] Why do we stop at 9?

We should rejoice if our children thoroughly mastered nothing more than the single digit multiplication table. Mastery of the 12 by 12 or even the 16 by 16, which is useful if you work with binary or hexadecimal number systems, are not worth the marginal effort. Products of multiple digit factors are calculated by knowing the single digit facts and using the algorithm to carry the higher order digit.