Let's multiply a 3 digit number by another three digit number. Say, 492 by 183.  Do it your way first - so you know what answer we should get.  1. Draw a 3 x 3 grid with each little square divided in two as shown.

2. Put the numbers to be multiplied along the sides.

3. Multiply the numbers on the top of the column and the right of the row together. Put the units in the bottom section of the grid square and the tens in the top. Leave the top bit blank if there are no tens.

4. Add up the numbers in the grid along the diagonals as shown, starting from the bottom right hand diagonal.  What are you going to do with the carries?

The answer is read off from the left hand side. So the answer is: 90036. Did you agree?
 

Now try it yourself with two more problems: 299 x 463 and 567 x 765

  1. Did you find the two multiplication problems came out to the same answer the Elizabethan way and your way?

2. What would you change to multiply a 4 digit number by a 4 digit number? Try just one and tell me if it worked. Is it easier or harder than your way?

3. What about a 4 digit number being multiplied by a 2 digit number? What would you change? Can you try one of those as well and let me know what you did and how it went?

4. Can you see the links between the way you normally do these and the Elizabethan way?

5. Is your brain starting to see that they are really the same?