SCHOOLBOY Khubaib Akhtar equals mathematical genius according to his teachers.

It might be hard to equate, but staff at The Valley School, Bolton, believe the nine-year-old has found a new way of working out division.

The clever youngster has created a table to work out the answer to his sums, rather than using the traditional “long division” method.

Maths co-ordinator at the Astley Bridge-based school, Elizabeth Keating said: “I have never seen divisions worked out this way in my career or at university. I looked at what he has come up with and it does work. Khubaib was then asked to make sure it works for bigger numbers and it does.

“Maths is a very creative subject and he has shown that. He has exceptional ability. He has taken the methods used to learn multiplication and addition and applied them to division. He will be very good at working out algebra equations.”

Khubaib, one of the school’s gifted and talented pupils, said he spent just a short time working out the table.

He said: “I love maths, I like looking at different ways to use numbers. I like using columns to work out sums and thought there must be a way of working out divisions in a table. It makes it easier for me. It was really good to discover a way of doing it, I was really pleased.”

The method devised by Khubaib involves partitioning the number to be divided, for example 65 becomes 60 and five. The numbers are placed on to a table and a series of simple divisions are performed to come up with the answer.

Now the youngster, who also excels in art subjects, is hoping to follow in the footsteps of either Isaac Newton or Carol Vorderman.

“I would like to discover another force, like gravity. I think there is another one and I want to discover it by the age of 20. Doing the sums on Countdown would also be good. I would also like to be a pilot.”

Mrs Keating said: “The method is not for everyone but people come up with different ways of doing sums, and Khubaib has done that. I would use this method with higher ability children to show how maths can be done in different way. It is impressive for a child of that age to have taken it upon himself to do this especially as he was not asked. He has a very logical way of thinking.”