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"the problem is that there's no good real-world equivalent of a "monoid" that basically everybody is familiar with." But that isn't really true. Addition and m
by voyou 13y ago
"the problem is that there's no good real-world equivalent of a "monoid" that basically everybody is familiar with."
But that isn't really true. Addition and multiplication are both real-world examples of monoids that everyone is familiar with (obviously, these aren't physical things, but I don't see why that's relevant).
- voyou 13y agoJust realised I may have missed your point; anyway, you're right that "monoid" is harder to find an easily-understood counterpart for than "container". There are examples of monoids which everyone is probably familiar with, but we don't usually abstract from those everyday examples; whereas as well as there being everyday examples of containers (boxes, bags), we are familiar with abstracting away from those examples in everyday life to come up with the general concept of container.