Multiplication

Have you ever looked at your shoes and seen a perfect pair? Or maybe you’ve seen a bunch of bananas hanging together, or a brand-new box of crayons all lined up in their neat little rows. It feels like a secret, doesn't it? A secret way of seeing lots of things all at once. What if I told you there was a way to count all those things super, super fast, without having to go one, by one, by one? It’s like a superpower for numbers, a little bit of magic that helps you see the big picture in a flash. That speedy secret is me. I am Multiplication.

I am very, very old. Thousands of years ago, long before there were schools with whiteboards and computers, people needed me. In a warm land called Babylonia, farmers would use me to count their fluffy sheep and their fields of golden wheat. They didn’t have paper, so they would press little marks into soft clay tablets with pointy sticks to keep track of everything. I was their special trick for counting big groups. Then, I traveled to ancient Egypt, where giant pyramids touched the sky. The builders needed to know exactly how many huge stone blocks they needed for each row. Instead of adding block after block after block, they used me. You see, I am just a shortcut for my friendly cousin, Addition. Instead of saying 4 plus 4 plus 4, you can just say 4 times 3. It’s so much faster. I helped them build those amazing wonders, one speedy calculation at a time. I started as a clever idea on clay and became a tool everyone can use.

Today, you can find my magic everywhere you look. Are you having a party for your five best friends? If you want to give each friend three cookies, you can use me to figure out you need fifteen cookies in total. Do you have four toy cars? I can tell you that you have sixteen wheels to roll around. When you’re playing a video game and you hit a special star that doubles your points, that’s me, helping you win. I help people share things fairly, build amazing things, and plan wonderful surprises. I make big counting jobs feel small and simple. So next time you see a group of things, remember me. I’ll always be here, ready to help you turn little numbers into big, exciting ideas, one group at a time.