Mathematics was never my thing. I quite enjoyed it at O-level, to the degree that I selected to do it at A-level. As early as the very first week of the A-level course, however, it became abundantly clear that the subject was rather beyond me. I merely could not make head or tail of what the teacher was on about.Looking around
at the rest of the class silently getting on with it, I remember wondering if there had been some primer course over the summer season that everyone however me had gone to. I simply didn’t get it. There didn’t appear to be any certainties anymore, seldom anything so uncomplicated as a right or wrong answer. There sufficed grey areas in my other topics– English and history. From my mathematics I desired certainty, objective fact, which as far as I could see wasn’t part of it any more.Where were the times tables, for example? I ‘d nailed those great and appropriate at a really early age. In rising order of problem I would rate them as follows: two, 10, 5, 11, 3, four, six, eight, seven and 12. You’ll observe that the nine times table does not include on this list. Why? Well, I found it too easy. It was my speciality. However that’s since I was cheating– or so it felt– as someone had actually revealed me a quick technique with which to nail the nines, as it were.For this reason, I was interested to check out that in an analysis of times tables answers by primary school kids, it was ones that included the number nine that were frequently wrong. They’re not the only ones. When the then school standards minister Nick Gibb revealed the rollout of nationwide multiplication tests in 2018, he refused to try 8×9 on ITV’s Good Early morning Britain.What’s the matter with everyone? Nines are easy! If you kind of cheat, like me.What you do is this. Hold your hands up, palms facing you. If it’s 8×9 you have an interest in, simply fold down the 8th digit from the left, which will be the middle finger of your right hand. Now count the variety of digits still standing to the left of the one you have actually folded down. There will be 7. Now count the number still standing to the right of the one you’ve folded down. There will be two. And there’s your answer: 8×9 =72. And it works for every digit, right as much as 10×9. After that, undoubtedly, I’m stymied . Thank God for calculators. Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist