| 3 | Multiplication |
Suppose you go into a store and buy seven articles for $1.00 each. The total cost is $7.00; you count $1.00 seven times. What if the articles cost $3.00 apiece? In that case, to find the total, you must count $3.00 seven times. This type of problem leads to the next step in calculating: multiplication.
IT’S A SHORTCUT
Multiplication is a shortcut for repeated addition. At one time, children learning arithmetic memorized huge multiplication tables without knowing why they’d ever need such facts. If you memorized, say, 7 times 3 is 21 (written 7 × 3 = 21), you could do calculations more quickly than if you had to go to a table and look up every multiplication fact. But not many people could tell you the reason why 7 × 3 = 21! ...
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