Number Sense & Mental Math

Multiply 23 × 27 in 3 Seconds

Same tens digit + ones that add up to 10? Here's the shortcut:

30 s

Step by step

  1. Can you do 23 × 27 in 3 seconds?
    Can you do twenty-three times twenty-seven in three seconds? Here's the trick!
  2. Same tens digit, ones add up to 10
    Same tens digit, and the ones digits add up to ten.
  3. Tens × (next number up): 2 × 3 = 6
    Tens digit times the next number up: two times three is six.
  4. Ones × ones: 3 × 7 = 21
    Ones times ones: three times seven is twenty-one.
  5. Put them together: 621!
    Put them together: six hundred twenty-one!

Your turn

Your turn: sixty-four times sixty-six?

Show the answer

Six times seven is forty-two. Four times six is twenty-four. Forty-two twenty-four!

Keep going

There are more short lessons on this topic, each with a full write-up. A free 15-question fractions check-up is coming soon.

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