Learning times tables, using traditional methods based on rote memorisation, can be a long and boring procedure for children. Learning with the Pythagoras tube offers a completely different approach, which is far more motivating and much more meaningful.

The Tube is a highly successful educational toy, made up of a tube which has two twistable knobs at each end, a blue one and a red one. The central part contains several «windows» where, when the knobs are turned, the natural numbers from 1 to 10 appear with their relative multiplications, divisions and times tables.
Like any other object incorporating mathematical laws, the didactic potential of the Tube depends on the type of activity the child is proposed. It is particularly important that it is not only used to achieve a result but also, and most importantly, to make exercises that encourage awareness of the mathematical properties involved and which lead to the construction of meanings. The book therefore contains a series of worksheets with instructions that help children to reflect upon the Tube’s working mechanisms, to understand the underlying logic, make it their own and at the same time become accustomed to describing and reasoning over their strategies and analysing the results.
In carrying out the activities suggested with the Tube, children acquire familiarity, flexibility and mastery in  using times tables, learning them not in a mechanical way but understanding they are a precious calculation and arithmetic problem solving tool.