Who invented the multiplication table

The multiplication table is familiar to anyone since school days. Children begin to teach it in primary school, and often students are curious - who invented the multiplication table?

From the history

The first mention of the multiplication table has been known since 1-2 centuries. It was depicted in ten by ten format in the book by Nicomachus of Geraz "Introduction to Arithmetic." It was also given there that Pythagoras used this image of a table around 570 BC. In the Pythagorean table, the numbers were recorded in the Ionian numbering. It used twenty-four letters from the Greek alphabet and three archaic letters of the Phoenicians 6 = wow, 90 = koppa, 900 = sampi. To distinguish between numbers and letters, a horizontal line was drawn above the numbers.

The ancient Greek notation of decimal numbers and the modern model of the multiplication table are significantly different from each other. The differences include the use and non-use of zero. Numeral letters from 1 to 9 are not used to denote full tens, full hundreds and full thousands. They are indicated by their own letters.

In ancient times, the people did not have signs of sum and difference. If the left number was greater in a pair of letter-numbers, then they added up, and if the right number was greater, then the left one was subtracted.

Study

The introduction of multiplication tables into the everyday life of the people has contributed to the progress of oral and written accounts. Previously, there were various tricky ways to calculate the products of single digits. They slowed down the process, and many computational errors were made because of them.

In Russian schools, the multiplication table reaches 10X10. In UK schools, the multiplication table ends at 12X12. This is due to units of English length measures. One foot equals twelve inches.

During the Soviet Union, first-grade students were asked to learn the multiplication table for the summer holidays. In the second grade, in the lessons of mathematics, knowledge was fixed on the multiplication table. Now in Russia, the study of the multiplication table usually begins in the second grade.

Application of the multiplication table

The main application of the multiplication table is to develop practical skills for multiplying natural numbers. But this is not its only use. A multiplication table is also used for some mathematical proofs. For example, to derive the formula for the sum of cubes of natural numbers or to obtain a similar expression for the sum of squares.