This is an edited extract from the keynote address given by Dr. Chris Wetherell at the 26th Biennial Conference of the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers Inc. The author investigates the surprisingly rich structure that exists within a simple arrangement of numbers: the times tables.

Some people recognize a palindrome when they see one, however fewer realize that a palindrome is a special case of a pattern and that these patterns are all around. Palindromes frequently occur in names, both of vehicles and people, and in music. The traditional mathematical curriculum has often left palindromes out of the common vernacular. Where…