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by nthState 3138 days ago
I struggled and still do with multiplication taught in School. As a child my dad showed me "Napier's Bones". I haven't looked back since, it may be slower, more drawing, but for me it works

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier%27s_bones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZLpqTyZMM4

3 comments

Your video link just shows the common lattice method for writing the standard multiplication algorithm, used since at least the 1200s by Arabs and common around the world ever since. Napier's bones is a physical artifact, which tries to eliminate the required memorization of a 1-digit multiplication table, and is very rarely used in practice by anyone anywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_multiplication
oh, I always thought it was called Napier's Bones, oh well.
That was awesome, I never heard of them before, just spent twenty minutes with the wiki link.
Strange, to me that just looks like the standard algorithm put in a form that can be partly mechanised. I am surprised that it helps people who do not have a physical set of the bones themselves.
It doesn't, parent poster was confused. The bones are required to make the method useful