High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In mathematics, a multiplication table (sometimes, less formally, a times table) is a mathematical table used to define a multiplication operation for an algebraic system. The decimal multiplication table was traditionally taught as an essential part of elementary arithmetic around the world, as it lays the foundation for arithmetic operations with our base-ten numbers. Many educators believe it is necessary to memorize the table up to 9 × 9. In countries using the Imperial system of measurement, such as the United States, it is often considered helpful to memorize the table up to 12 × 12. In 493 A.D., Victorius of Aquitaine wrote a 98-column multiplication table which gave (in Roman numerals) the product of every number from 2 to 50 times and the rows were "a list of numbers starting with one thousand, descending by hundreds to one hundred, then descending by tens to ten, then by ones to one, and then the fractions down to 1/144" (Maher & Makowski 2001, p.383)