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I have this question to answer and I don't know where to start. 1*9=0, 9*8=72 and 2*8=9, then 9*9 =? Thank you. Greg Potts Hi Greg,This operation "*" is a distorted multiplication of two integers, I am going to call it star-multiplication. The way you star-multiply two numbers is to subtract 1 from the first number, add one to the second number, and then multiply. If you write ordinary multiplication as "x" then 9*8 = (9-1)x(8+1) = 8x9 = 72 2*8 = (2-1)x(8+1) = 1x9 = 9 In many ways star-multiplication doesn't behave like multiplication. In particular 1*9 = 0 (You can star-multiply two non-zero numbers and get zero.) 5*0 = 4 (Star-multiplying by zero doesn't necessarily give zero.) Can you solve these equations? 3*a = 9 Penny
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