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We've found a quicker way to multiply really big numbers

  • Written by David Harvey, Associate professor in mathematics, UNSW
If you thought multiplication tables at school were hard, imagine multiplying numbers with billions of digits.Shutterstock/Nina Buday

Multiplication of two numbers is easy, right?

At primary school we learn how to do long multiplication like this:

The long way to multiplication.David Harvey

Methods similar to this go back thousands of years, at least...

Read more: We've found a quicker way to multiply really big numbers