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KASHIHARA, Nara Prefecture—The strip of wood unearthed here may seem like nothing special to the casual observer, but it turns out the fragment is part of a multiplication table about 1,300 years old.

Q: How much is 230 times 10? A: The number of years humans have been calculating with decimals. A crack team of scholars in Beijing learned this last year when they solved a 23-centuries-old puzzle.

Most people will probably remember the times tables from primary school quizzes. There might be patterns in some of them (the simple doubling of the 2 times table) but others you just learnt by rote.

Learn multiplication with table 8 ✖️📖!!