[rawhide]

What's the code?

[wbill]

Definitely. Definitely 33 dollars in his bank account.

[ClearCase_guy]

What’s the frequency, Kenneth?

[evets]

“Zip, zip, zap and add ‘em together.”

(Where’s my $33?)

[martin_fierro]

Here it is:

  AAAA
x BBBB
= CCCC

[diefree]

My father, born in 1896, with only an 8th grade education could do that. He never told me how he did it but, at the time, I wasn’t interested.

I believe I read how it is done in a book called Math Tricks.

[angkor]

Easy.

$33.00 x 1 sucker born every minute = $1,000,000.00

[SvenMagnussen]

Develop a matrix.
Cross Multiply.
Add.

It’s easy.

It’s easier to buy a calculator.

It’s easiest to estimate.

[P8riot]

Man Says He's Cracked

They could've ended the headline right there.

[MNDude]

did you know that any number multiplied by 999 is 999 by adding up the separate digits?

Example: 999 * 2009 = 2,006,991.00

2+6+991 = 999!

[The Electrician]

the retired pharmacist has copyrighted the formula, "How to Multiply Any Number by Any Number in Your Head,"

Much to his dismay, he's about to discover that copyright protects the expression but not the idea...

[Young Werther]

My 4th grade math teacher taught us the "code" using numbers ending in 5 as a starting point.

15 X 15 = 1 X 2, (first digits) and 5 X 5 = 25. therefore 15 X 15 = 225.

45 X 45 = (4X5=20) and (5X5=25) so 45X45=2025.

Other numbers work as well. For example 33 X 33= (33+3=36X3=108) and (3X3=9)so 33X33=1089! TA DAH

Today I use Excel, Cell Phone and other electronic devices which are as accurate and cost less than $33 for the "copyrighted formula"!

[stylecouncilor]

ping

[leilani]

From the Raleigh News-Observer story Fox News is citing in the OP:

Clay's method is best explained on paper. Suffice it to say you multiply the digits on the right, cross-multiply and add the digits in the center, then multiply the digits on the left.

Not a particularly novel concept to me. You will still need a highly nimble [read: regularly exercised] memory to accomplish the calculation in your head, and alas, there's no silver bullet magic trick in that, just regular practice.

Darnit! I would have been willing to pay the $33 just to be able to show off, too, but I'm not parting with the cash if his 'trick' means I also have to give up my well-earned trademarked mental laziness.

AD! Pick up the White Courtesy phone, please.

[dead]

"There may not be anybody else in the world who knows how to do this but me," Clay

And the two guys who paid you 33 bucks.

[mjp]

Instant Math, Based on the Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics

Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks

[Phantom Lord]

I am no good at multiplication. But I can add four 4 digit numbers in the neighborhood of 1 second.

[P.O.E.]

I can measure marigolds without the use of an inchworm, and will tell you how for $32.95