How to Multiply With Your Hands

Co-authored by David Jia

Last Updated: October 21, 2024 Fact Checked

Being able to multiple with your fingers is a valuable skill to have, and people have been doing it for quite a long time! We may have cellphone calculators, but in many cases it is actually easier to keep your phone in your pocket and multiply with your fingers. It is also helpful for students learning multiplication for the first time. For finger multiplication to work successfully, you must first know your multiplication tables from one to five. Multiplying by hand works for the tables of six, seven, eight, nine and ten.

Part 1

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Multiplying by Nine

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Each of your ten fingers represent a number. Moving from your left thumb to your right thumb, count out the numbers from one to ten.^{[1]
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David Jia
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Expert Interview. 7 January 2021.}
For example, if you want to solve (9x3) you will want to hold down your middle finger on your left hand. The middle finger represents the number three because, if you count your fingers from one to ten beginning with your left thumb, your middle finger is the third finger.^{[2]
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David Jia
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Expert Interview. 7 January 2021.}

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First count the fingers to the left of your bent finger - in this case there should be two. Next count the fingers to the right of your bent finger - in this case there should be seven. The first digit of the answer is 2 and the second digit is 7. The answer is 27!^{[3]
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David Jia
Academic Tutor

Expert Interview. 7 January 2021.}
How would you multiply 9 and 2 with your fingers? What about 9 and 7?^{[4]
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Part 2

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Multiplying by Six, Seven, Eight and Ten

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Again each finger will represent a number. Your pinkies represent the number six, your ring fingers will represent the number seven, your middle fingers will represent the number eight, your index fingers represent nine, and your thumbs represent the number ten.^{[5]
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2
Touch the fingers that represent your multiplication problem together. For example, if you want to figure out the problem (7x6) you would touch your left ring finger with your right pinky. Your left fingers represent the number on the left of the problem, and your right fingers represent the numbers on the right of the problem. Again, remember that each finger represents a number and that in this case, your ring finger represents seven and your pinky represents six. Therefore, you need to touch these together to solve this math problem.^{[6]
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- You may have to bend your wrist awkwardly to do this!
- As another example, if you were trying to calculate 9x7 you would touch your left index finger with your right ring finger.
The next step is to count the touching fingers as well as the fingers below them. These will represent the 10s. In this case you would count the ring finger on your left hand, the pinky on your left hand and the pinky on your right hand. Each finger that you count will count as 10. In this case, the total is 30.^{[7]
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The next step is to add together the number of fingers on each hand, not including the fingers that are touching. First count the number of fingers on your left hand that are above the touching fingers - in this case there are 3. Next, count the number of fingers on your right hand above the touching fingers - in this case there are 4. 3x4 = 12.^{[8]
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In this case you will add 30 to 12 for a total of 42. The answer to 7x6 is 42!
For example if you want to find the answer to 10x7, begin by touching your left thumb with your right ring finger. Count the number of fingers below the touching fingers, including the fingers that are touching. There should be a total of 7, which remember means 70. Next, count the number of fingers above the touching fingers on your right and left hand. There should be 0 on your left and 3 on your right. Now multiply 3x0 which is 0, and add 70 to 0 for you answer. The answer to 10x7 is 70!^{[9]
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How would you multiply 8 and 8 with your fingers? What about 7 and 10?

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Is it bad to multiply with your fingers?

David Jia
Math Tutor
David Jia is an Academic Tutor and the Founder of LA Math Tutoring, a private tutoring company based in Los Angeles, California. With over 10 years of teaching experience, David works with students of all ages and grades in various subjects, as well as college admissions counseling and test preparation for the SAT, ACT, ISEE, and more. After attaining a perfect 800 math score and a 690 English score on the SAT, David was awarded the Dickinson Scholarship from the University of Miami, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Additionally, David has worked as an instructor for online videos for textbook companies such as Larson Texts, Big Ideas Learning, and Big Ideas Math.

David Jia

Math Tutor

Expert Answer

I don't see anything wrong with it. Everyone learns differently, so do whatever it takes to help you learn the material. Over time, you'll become more confident with it, and you probably won't use your hands anymore anyway.

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Is this useful when multiplying fractions?

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No, it can get complicated if you are multiplying fractions. You could try using it to multiply simple numerators and simple denominators, however.

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How do I multiply by 12 with my hands?

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To multiply 12x12, imagine that you have two extra fingers on each of your hands, which gives you a run from 6 to 12 from your pinkie to the second extra finger. That also means seven fingers on each of your hands. You now have a total of fourteen 10's, since each of your fingers represents 10, which gives us 140. Then you only have to multiply the number of opposing extra fingers, which gives us 4, and a grand total of 144.

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