Using your times tables

How to use times tables

Times tables are used in all areas of maths.

If you know your times tables, you can work out other multiplication and division problems in your head.

Division is the inverse of multiplication. This means its the opposite.

The good news is you can use your multiplication knowledge to work out division problems.

If you know that:

6 × 3 = 18

Then, you know that:

18 ÷ 3 = 6

Multiplication is the opposite (inverse) of division.

This means that times tables can help you work out division problems.

This array has 3 rows of 4 blocks with 12 blocks in total.

This can be written four different ways.

3 × 4 = 12

4 × 3 = 12

12 ÷ 4 = 3

12 ÷ 3 = 4

If you know one fact, you actually know four facts. These are sometimes called fact families.

Notice that the same three numbers are used within each fact. An array can be used to represent a fact family.

Explore how times tables can be represented using an array with this interactive activity.

This array has 3 rows of 7 dots with 21 dots in total.

This can be written as 3 × 7 = 21

What are the other three facts that make up the fact family?

This array has 32 dots in total. There are 4 rows each with 8 dots in.

This can be written as 32 ÷ 4 = 8

What are the other three facts that make up the fact family?