I did this by using an ancient mathematical system called Vedic Maths to calculate the answer.

I am not sure if it is the same in other countries, but when we did maths at school, we had to show all the steps when calculating an answer to a mathematical question. If you did not show every step on how you actually calculated the answer, you did not get all the marks which were available.

I loved maths at school, but I did not go any further in University, as I did not believe it was required to go into the detail to get an answer, as according to me if you get to the correct answer you should get all the marks. I guess today, the children at school just use computers to work out the answers.

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Vedic Maths

So if I said 109 Squared = 11 881, you would obviously think that I used a calculator to do get to the answer - Well no I didn’t, I used the brilliance of an ancient mathematical system called Vedic Mathematics. The system was rediscovered from the Vedas somewhere between 1911 and 1918. The mathematical system is based on 16 Sutras, or otherwise called word-formulae.

So how does it work?

Vedic Maths is based on the understanding of what is called Unity Consciousness. This means we should use Number Bases that correspond to:
0, 10, 100, 1000, etc. all of which add to 1.

Let's use the example above using Vedic Maths
109 Squared = ?
In Vedic Maths as follow:

109 Squared = 109 + 9 and 9 X 9
= 118 and 81
= 11 881
Don't believe me, try it on the calculator.

So what does this mean. If we look at 109 squared, we only think of the excess of "9", looking at how much more is 9 more than the base of 100. Obviously this is 9. All we need to do is to add this 9 to the original number "109" and extend this number by the square of the excess number.

Let's use another similar example:

106 Squared = 106 + 6 and 6 X 6
= 112 and 36
= 11 236

What about multiplication?

107 X 108 = ?

In Vedic Maths we do it as follow:

107 X 108 = 107 + 8 and 7 X 8
= 115 and 56
= 11 556

106 X 107 = 106 + 7 and 6 X 7
= 113 and 42
= 11 342
Simple isn’t it?

What about if we are less than the base number of 100
Now we need to work out how much less than the base the last number is.

Let’s look at 95 Squared = ?
95 is 5 less than 100.

95 Squared = 95 -5 and 5 X 5
= 90 and 25
= 9 025
91 is 9 less than 100.
91 Squared = 91 - 9 and 9 X 9
= 82 and 81
= 8 281

What about a more difficult one:

And if we use larger numbers?

What about 998 Squared = ?
Now you work with a base of 1000 and do exactly the same, with the difference you need to have 3 "Numbers" on the right trailing by zero's

So let's do 998 Squared in Vedic Maths (Remember the base is 1000 now not 100)

997 Squared = 997 - 3 and 3 X 3
= 994 and Remember three numbers on the right and then 9
= 994 009

And even larger numbers?

Let's go even larger by looking at 9994 Squared = ? Now we work with a base of 10 000 which means we need 4 numbers on the right adding 0's if we do not have a 4 digit answer.
So 9994 is 6 less that the base of 10 000.
9994 Squared = 9994 - 6 and 6 X 6
= 9988 and 36
= 99 880 036

I still believe if you could get to the answer in such easy ways, why shouldn't you get full marks for your maths test. Why do you need to use the formula's as taught in the curriculum. As mentioned before there are 16 Sutras on which the concept of Vedic Maths are based.

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I hope that this ancient form of maths is not lost in our children's future.

I am going to do some more research on the subject and show it to my children when the time is right …. Why not?

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