Did You Learn These Old Tricks As A Child? They Are Still So Useful

Jul 20, 2017

Sometimes known as "grandma's tricks", these clever hacks are sometimes forgotten but they are still so clever and relevant! How many of these did you get taught as a child and how many do you still use today? 

1. Know the number of days in the month:

Prehaps the most popular trick, start by making a fist and counting the months by the knuckles. Each knuckle gap and bump is a seperate month.

If the month is on the knuckle bump, there are 31 days. If it’s on the gap — 30 or less.

2. Multiplication on fingers

Remembering your times tables for small numbers is always easy but as the numbers get bigger, so it gets more difficult. A great trick is to turn your palms up towards your face and number each finger, starting with the little finger, from 6 to 10.  Then, when you want to, for example, multiply 7 by 8, you touch the number 7 finger on your left hand to the number 8 finger on the right hand. The amount of fingers at the bottom (including the touching ones) are tens. So we have 5 which is 50. Then multiply the fingers on the top by each other, we have 3 and 2 so it is 6. Therefore the answer is 56.

7 x 8 = 56

With this method you can quickly multiply 6, 7 and 8.

For your 9 times tables, straighten all of your fingers and put your hands palms down. To multiply any number by 9, all you have to do is is bend the corresponding finger down. The fingers before are tens and the fingers after are units. So for example, if we wanted to multiple 7 by 9, bend down the 7th finger. The 6 fingers before it represent 60 and the 3 afterwards 3 so the answer is 63.

7 x 9 = 63 

3. Length:

Every now and again we need to aproximately measure something and there is not a ruler in sight. This trick comes in handy because according to the average human proportions, the distance between the tip of the thumb and your forefinger is about 18cm while the space between your thumb and little finger is approximately 20cm.  

While not absolutely accurate, it can come in very useful when you do not have a ruler on hand. 

4. Know the degrees of an angle:

Another easy measurement with your hand is to measure angles. If you spread your fingers as much as you can and place them palm down you can get an approximate measure of angles. If the little finger lies on the bottom side, you can consider it as 0°. The angle between the thumb and the little finger is approximately 90° with the angles between the little finger and your ring finger being 30°, your middle finger 45° and your pointer finger 60°. Your very own protractor! 

Remember these old tricks? SHARE now with friends and family who might remember them too, or need some reminding :)