Subtract from 1000, 10000, and beyond
One rule for the last digit
- Only the last digit is taken from 10 — every other digit is taken from 9.
- Match digit counts: subtracting a 3-digit number from 1000 gives a 3-digit answer; pad with leading zeros if needed.
- Trailing zeros in the number need care — the ‘last from 10’ applies to the last non-zero handling; practise these separately.
Subtract using all-from-9
Each is a power of 10 minus a number.
- 1000 − 376
- 10000 − 4567
- 1000 − 648
- 10000 − 2839
- 1000 − 905
- 100000 − 47681
- 1000 − 7
- 10000 − 9999
- 1000 − 250
- 100 − 38
Good to know
Does all-from-9 only work for powers of ten?
The clean one-line version is for 10, 100, 1000… For other numbers you combine it with a small adjustment, which we teach once the base case is solid.
How is this used in other methods?
It powers Nikhilam multiplication and fast complement arithmetic — learning it well pays off across the whole system.
Vedic Maths — Veda Topper
Subtract from 100, 1000 or 10000 — Instantly
To subtract a number from a power of ten, you never borrow. The sutra Nikhilam says: take all the digits from 9, and the last digit from 10.
The rule
To do (100, 1000, 10000…) minus a number: subtract every digit from 9, except the last digit which you subtract from 10.
When the number has fewer digits than the base
For 1000 − 48, treat 48 as 048: 9−0 = 9, 9−4 = 5, 10−8 = 2 → 952. This same idea powers base multiplication and the complement method used across Vedic Maths.
Why it works
Every digit of the answer plus the matching digit of the number must reach 9 (or 10 in the units place) so the whole thing sums to the base — that is precisely "all from 9 and the last from 10."
1) 1000 − 268 2) 10000 − 5732 3) 100 − 37 4) 1000 − 6 5) 10000 − 349
Answers: 1) 732 2) 4268 3) 63 4) 994 5) 9651