{"id":3102,"date":"2012-02-21T15:38:44","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T20:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/?p=3102"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:45:13","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:45:13","slug":"japanese-multiplication-trick-and-what-it-has-to-do-with-the-gre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/japanese-multiplication-trick-and-what-it-has-to-do-with-the-gre\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Multiplication Trick, and What It Has to Do With the GRE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e-P5RGdjICo<\/p>\n<p>Watch this silent video for a new (to most of us) visual way to multiply!<\/p>\n<p>What does this have to do with the GRE? Note that the 3 at right (which ended up in the ones place) was completed before any of the &#8220;big&#8221; numbers at left. That is, we didn&#8217;t need to know what our answer <em>started with<\/em> to know what our answer <em>ended with<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of the method of multiplication you use (even if that &#8220;method&#8221; is a calculator), you will want to remember this very important principle for the GRE:<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>If you only need the units digit (ones place) of the answer, you only need the units digits of the numbers being multiplied.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2012\/02\/screenshot.jpg\" alt=\"japanese multiplication\" width=\"420\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3104\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2012\/02\/screenshot.jpg 449w, https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2012\/02\/screenshot-300x185.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 449px) 100vw, 449px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here is a GRE problem where that principle is essential to solving:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If <em>m<\/em> is the units digit of (456,789)(13,457,668) and <em>n<\/em> is the units digit of (13,456,789)(457,668), what is the units digit of the product of <em>n<\/em> and <em>m<\/em>?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This problem seems simple enough &#8212; until you realize that 456,789 x 13,457,668 is too big for the GRE&#8217;s calculator. Fortunately, though, <em>if you only need the units digit of the answer, you only need the units digits of the numbers being multiplied<\/em>. Since 9 x 8 = 72, which ends in 2, 456,789 x 13,457,668 also ends in 2. So, <em>m<\/em> = 2.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, 13,456,789 x 457,668 also ends in 2, since 9 x 8 = 72, which ends in 2. So, <em>n<\/em> = 2 as well.<\/p>\n<p>Since <em>nm<\/em> = 2 x 2 = 4, the answer is 4.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re still skeptical, get a calculator and try with some slightly smaller numbers. What should 999 x 556 end in? Well, 9 x 6 = 54, so it should end in 4. Sure, enough, 999 x 556 = 555,444. It works!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e-P5RGdjICo Watch this silent video for a new (to most of us) visual way to multiply! What does this have to do with the GRE? Note that the 3 at right (which ended up in the ones place) was completed before any of the &#8220;big&#8221; numbers at left. That is, we didn&#8217;t need to know [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-study","category-math-gre-strategies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7164,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions\/7164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3102"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}