2 ms·
Now that's an interesting point, did it start as repeated addition? It is just as conceivable that people were faced with a problem like 'each person needs 2 a
by contravariant 6y ago
Now that's an interesting point, did it start as repeated addition?
It is just as conceivable that people were faced with a problem like 'each person needs 2 apples, we have 5 people, so we need 10 apples'?
In this case repeated addition is a perfectly fine algorithm to calculate the product but the product itself is not defined as repeated addition, it's the solution to a particular type of problem.
- cyborgx7 6y agoYour problem just reinforces the notion that multiplication is repeated addition. "So we need 2 for him and 2 for her and 2 for him and 2 for him and 2 for her. 2+2+2+2+2 = 5 x 2 = 10"
- contravariant 6y agoI disagree, translating from "2 for (him + her + him + him + her)" to "2 for him + 2 for her + 2 for him + 2 for him + 2 for her" is using the distributive property of multiplication. The sentence "2 for him and 2 for her and 2 for him and 2 for him and 2 for her" is unnatural and not the way people generally think (unless they're just tallying up but then we're not even talking about multiplication anymore, a tally rarely consists of all equal numbers)