Maths 4 YouMaths 4 You

Improving your maths makes life easier for everyone
And we can make maths easier for you

A lot of us struggled with maths at school and now we struggle in every day situations where being better at maths would really help. We can all gain confidence in maths and start using it to make our lives easier at home and at work. And if we’re better at maths we can help our children as they learn it at school, so they won’t see it as difficult.

Maths makes life easier

Being better at maths can save you money every day:

  • It’s easier to shop within your budget
  • It’s easier to work out your fuel costs
  • You won’t be short changed
  • You’ll know when you can afford to treat yourself

Maths makes work easier

Being better at maths can help you at work. Shop assistants, construction workers and most people in office jobs would find life easier with better maths skills.

Have more fun with maths

Better maths can make life more fun whether it’s for sports like darts, cricket and snooker or activities such as board games, gardening and photography.

Try these tips and tricks for making maths easier:

The easy way to work out VAT

VAT is 20% - and there's an easy way to work out the VAT on any price.
Divide the price by 10 and note down the answer. Double the number and you have the amount of VAT.

An example?

Let's try and work out the VAT on £150
Step 1 150 divided by 10 = 15
Step 2 15 multiplied by 2 = 30
VAT = 15 + 15 = 30.00
Breaking the calculation down takes the fear out of working out VAT!

Multiplying by 99

Multiplying by 99 is difficult, right? Wrong!
Multiplying any 1 or 2 digit number by 99 couldn’t be simpler using this method:
Taking 1 away from the number being multiplied gives you the left part of the answer.
Taking the number being multiplied from 100 gives you the right part of the answer.

An example?

66 X 99
Step 1 66 – 1 = 65 (left part of answer)
Step 2 100 – 66 = 34 (right part of answer)
Answer = 6534, simple!
How about

Squaring numbers

Want to square (multiply by itself) any number ending in 5. Here’s how to impress yourself and your friends!
Step 1 Dump the 5
Step 2 Multiply the number you’re left with by the next highest number
Step 3 Tag on the digits 25 to the right-hand side of your answer.

An example?

Let’s take 85 and see if we can work out its square (85 X 85)?
Step 1 Dump the 5; that leaves us with 8
Step 2 8 X 9 = 72
Step 3 7225
It’s as easy as that! Try your own numbers and prove you can be a multiplication wizard!

Imagine being asked to calculate 999 X 999 without a calculator (or therapy!)
There’s an easy way that might not make you famous but will make you feel good. The steps are easy:

Step 1 Write down as many 9s as you are squaring less 1
Step 2 Then on the right-hand side, write down an 8
Step 3 Then, on the right-hand side, write as many 0s as you had 9s to start with
Step 4 Put a 1 on the right hand side

Let’s try it on our question 999 X 999:

Step 1 99
Step 2 998
Step 3 998000
Step 4 9980001

Try it for yourself with more 9s. How about 99999 X 99999 without a calculator? Go on - you can do it!

Easy ways to remember your times tables

Let’s take the fraction ½ and write a list of equivalent fractions in order...

1/2
2/4
3/6
4/8
5/10
6/12
7/14
8/16
9/18
10/20
11/22
12/24

That’s great, you might think, but so what?

Well, if we put the digits in these fractions together, carrying where necessary, we get the 12X table.

Let’s see how...

1/2 12
2/4 24
3/6 36
4/8 48
5/10 60 Carry the 1 and add to the 5
6/12 72 Carry the 1 and add to the 6
7/14 84 Carry the 1 and add to the 7
8/16 96 Carry the 1 and add to the 8
9/18 108 Carry the 1 and add to the 9
10/20 120 Carry the 2 and add to the 0
11/22 132 Carry the 2 and add to the 1
12/24 144 Carry the 2 and add to the 2

See if you can continue the sequence...?

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