In year 6 most children will be familiar with the standard written method of multiplication which depends on a good knowledge of times tables, or multiplication tables. The Ancient Egyptians hadn't quite worked out 'times tables' so that they had to use a different method of multiplying which involves 'decomposing' one of the numbers into a sum of powers of two and then a process of doubling. It also shows just how powerful mathematical tools doubling and halving are. The Egyptians had a table of their own, but of powers of two. e.g. 1 2 4 8 16 etc. The method is explained in detail on the first page of the worksheets. Whilst this method looks quite long-winded, once you get the idea it can be a neat way of multiplying, especially if tables are not known. Sometimes it can help children's understanding of maths and numbers if they are shown a completely different way of approaching a calculation. This page can be found in our Year 6 Challenges and Investigations category.