Working through the table to see where different numbers appear, the students will have a good opportunity to observe the symmetry of the table which comes from the commutative property of multiplication: $a \times b = b \times a$. For example, 24 appears 4 times in the table:Ģ4 = 3 \times 8 = 8 \times 3 = 6 \times 4 = 4 \times 6.įor the 9 by 9 multiplication table shown, only the numbers 1 through 9 appear with all of their factorizations. The table shows some, but not necessarily all, factorizations of different numbers.
The goal of this task is to encourage students to study the multiplication table, a familiar object, from a novel point of view.
