Raksha Bandhan | Maths Grade 3 CBSE

Play with it

Six ideas about multiplying

Equal groups, repeated addition, the × sign and neat rows. Tap each term to see what it means, with a festival example you can picture.

Explore · Equal groupstap a term

Learn

When every group has the same number of things, we have equal groups.
To find the total, we can add the group size again and again — that is repeated addition.
3 plates of 4 laddoos = 4 + 4 + 4 = 12 laddoos.

Worked example. 5 boxes each have 2 mithai. How many mithai?

2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 mithai.

The sign × means “times” or “groups of”. 3 × 4 means 3 groups of 4 = 12.
An array is things in neat rows and columns. 4 rows of 3 beads is 4 × 3 = 12.
Order does not change the answer: 3 × 4 and 4 × 3 both make 12.

Worked example. Write “2 rows of 6 diyas” as a multiplication.

2 rows × 6 = 2 × 6 = 12 diyas.

Tables are just skip counting: the 2-table is 2, 4, 6, 8, 10…; the 5-table is 5, 10, 15, 20…
Two easy facts: any number × 1 stays the same; any number × 0 is 0 (no groups).
For a story sum, find the number of groups and the size of each group, then multiply.

Worked example. Each child gets 3 sweets. There are 6 children. How many sweets?

6 groups of 3 = 6 × 3 = 18 sweets.

Common mix-up: multiplying needs equal groups. If the plates hold different numbers of laddoos, you must add them, not multiply.

Where you’ll meet it

Packing the same number of mithai into each box is multiplication — groups of equal size.

Chairs set in equal rows for a function are an array — rows times seats gives the total.

Pencils come in packs of the same size, so multiplying the packs gives the total pencils.

Check yourself

Nine friendly questions to check that you can use multiplication — equal groups, the × sign and arrays — not just say the tables.

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