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Is division confused with fractions?

Myuncle

By Myuncle
in Mathematics

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ajb

ajb

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Posted

Even multiplication it's nothing but a shortcut for addition. I can calculate 3x76556 with additions, but it would take me a year to write it down...So I suppose that, in the past, the origin of multiplication was the need to create a shortcut for long tedious additions, and the origin of division was to create a shortcut for long tedious subtractions.

 

 

I agree that this is most likely the origin of multiplication and division. Though I would say that the notion of multiplying mathematical objects can be much more general than this.

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Myuncle
Myuncle

Why do we teach our kids that 6 ÷ 3 = 2? If I divide 6 oranges in 3, what I get is not 2 oranges, but 2+2+2, without subtracting 4 oranges. So why don't we teach 6 ÷ 3 = 2+2+2, 1÷2 = 0.5+0.5, etc e

ajb
ajb

The example values are all very neat, appart from 1/3. As a decimal this does not have a very nice representation. You mean [math]7 = (2 \times 3) +1[/math]. Which we can then pretty much use as

gabrelov
gabrelov

We can rephrase this as we have 6 oranges and there are three of you so we divide 6 oranges by three persons and you get 2 for each person.   It simply implies how many part will each person get.

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