The saying is true, there is more than one way to skin a cat. I never would have thought that at my age I would be learning a new way to multiply but that’s what just happened. Apparently the Japanese have an insanely easy way to figure out multiplication problems that I have never seen before. This is how it breaks down…

The picture below doesn’t really make much sense on first glance, but when you find out how it works – your mind will be blown.

Basically, you take your first number and draw a group of lines corresponding to each number parallel to each other – so if it’s 21, for example, you draw a group of two lines and then further along, but still parallel, you draw one line. Then you take the second number and do the same thing, but crossing the other group. You then count up the intersections in each group and voila – you get your answer.

Check out this video showing you how it’s done!