I hate multiplication when one of the multiplicand or multiplier heads into double digits and beyond.  I’d rather shoot myself when both parts become larger numbers.

Fortunately, Russian peasants and the Ancient Egyptians were kind enough to impart the knowledge of how to handle these numbers and come up with an answer with very little effort involved.

Thanks to a book that I’m reading from 1955 I’ve now discovered an even easier way, however large the numbers involved happen to be, which was used by the Mesopotamians.

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I was never the world’s most natural mathematician. I wish I’d been taught the tricks used to solve multiplication problems by the Egyptians and Russian peasants.

Consider the sum 58 x 93. That would take me a while to work out normally. I don’t even know where to start, truth be told.

However, if I were an Egyptian this problem would resolve itself fairly easily.

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