Multiplication Fable
We were to memorize if able
the whole multiplication table.
I learned the ones to sixes fine,
yet still have trouble with seven through nine.
So when the cents approach a dime,
I always have an awful time.
It was during chicken pox
(when I, attired in gloves and sox
was simply trying to score an itch)
that my math skills developed a hitch.
As others mastered seven through nine,
I was there at home, supine.
Six times seven’s forty-two.
that’s the last sum I easily do.
Six times eight is forty eight–
determined after some debate.
But six times nine or nine times six
always leaves me in a fix.
Sixty-three, perhaps, or more.
Could it instead be sixty-four?
At nine times eight I’m surely lost.
Those sums I should have had embossed
upon my wrist in a tattoo.
These long delays just will not do.
I breathe a sigh when once again
the multiplier ends up as ten.
Ten is easy, so I strut
as I just add a zero, but
as I stumble through its next-of-kin,
I approximate, then write it in.
The prompt today was memorize.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Sevens and Eights are still difficult — pure memory. Nines are easy for me: the two digits always add to nine, and the first digit is one less than the multiplier — eg. 6×9 = 54 (5 is one less than 6, and 5+4=9).Tough when multiplier is >11! Talking of which, the temps will be in the triple digits again today — fans are on, house is closed, and a/c will be running all day!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Were you a teacher? Wish someone had taught me that 60 years ago!!! If I can remember that I have a formula, it will come in handy for the rest of my life. Thanks, Janet. It has been raining here for two or three days, constantly. Also cool for Mexico. A hurricane off the coast always affects our weather, even though we are hours away.
LikeLike
My mother taught me that formula when I was learning the multiplication tables — she was not a teacher (and nor was I), so I guess she must have learned it as a little girl too! There are bunches of nice tricks like that within simple arithmetic! My career was in student financial aid and student loans (before they became so troublesome)..
LikeLike
Oddly, I could do the multiplication table, but I could not subtract 8 from 15, or 7 from 15. I hope they don’t give me one of those dementia tests.
LikeLike
Actually, I did have a dementia test for insurance I was applying for (after age 70, they insist), and all they asked was to subtract by 3’s from 20. It was easy. I had heard they make you subtract by 7’s from 100. I was terrified they would do that. 7’s are my nemesis.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonder if there is a reason for that as we both blank out on the same number. I sitll double-check my sevens and eights and nines.
LikeLike
Actually, NINES are easy because the answer always adds up to nine. The first number is one less than the multiplies so that 7 times 9 = 63 (six plus three is 9) and 8 times 9 = 72 (seven plus two is 9) … It’s the only one I can ALWAYS remember.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Janet told me that as well.. I have in ingrained in my memory along with all the other things I have plans not to forget.
LikeLike
Just read this again in 2020 and have no memory of learning that trick, but I’m going to remember it this time. Why had I never been told that before???
LikeLike