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In mathematics, a multiplication table (sometimes, less formally, a times table) is a mathematical table used to define a multiplication operation for an algebraic system. The decimal multiplication table was traditionally taught as an essential part of elementary arithmetic around the world, as it lays the foundation for arithmetic operations ...
Twenty-one bamboo strips of the Tsinghua Bamboo Strips, when assembled in the correct order, represent a decimal multiplication table that can be used to multiply numbers (any whole or half integer) up to 99.5. [3] Joseph Dauben of the City University of New York called it "the earliest artefact of a decimal multiplication table in the world". [3]
[47] [48] Although he was preceded by the Babylonians, Indians and the Chinese, [49] the Neopythagorean mathematician Nicomachus (60–120 AD) provided one of the earliest Greco-Roman multiplication tables, whereas the oldest extant Greek multiplication table is found on a wax tablet dated to the 1st century AD (now found in the British Museum ...
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol, ×, by the mid-line dot operator, ·, by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk, *) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being addition, subtraction, and division. The result of a multiplication operation is called a product.
The method was based on lattice multiplication, and also called rabdology, a word invented by Napier. Napier published his version in 1617. [1] It was printed in Edinburgh and dedicated to his patron Alexander Seton. Using the multiplication tables embedded in the rods, multiplication can be reduced to addition operations and division to ...
together with a table of reciprocals. Numbers whose only prime factors are 2, 3 or 5 (known as 5-smooth or regular numbers) have finite reciprocals in sexagesimal notation, and tables with extensive lists of these reciprocals have been found. Reciprocals such as 1/7, 1/11, 1/13, etc. do not have finite representations in sexagesimal notation.
He also invented the so-called "Napier's bones" and made common the use of the decimal point in arithmetic and mathematics. Napier's birthplace, Merchiston Tower in Edinburgh, is now part of the facilities of Edinburgh Napier University. There is a memorial to him at St Cuthbert's at the west side of Edinburgh. [2]
The History of Mathematical Tables: from Sumer to Spreadsheets is an edited volume in the history of mathematics on mathematical tables.It was edited by Martin Campbell-Kelly, Mary Croarken, Raymond Flood, and Eleanor Robson, developed out of the presentations at a conference on the subject organised in 2001 by the British Society for the History of Mathematics, [1] [2] and published in 2003 ...