Comment by devmor
6 days ago
> manually computing arithmetic is not necessary to reason about numbers
It absolutely is. If you can't add or subtract, what reasoning are you doing that is worthwhile?
6 days ago
> manually computing arithmetic is not necessary to reason about numbers
It absolutely is. If you can't add or subtract, what reasoning are you doing that is worthwhile?
You can grasp the concept without executing the mechanics. I don't see how that's difficult to grasp.
> I don't see how that's difficult to grasp.
Maybe that's because you actually can do arithmetic, to the point where it's difficult for you to see how it would be if you couldn't?
I can't do arithmetic more than a couple digits, though, that's what the python console is for.
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Try standing in line at a grocery store and listening to people get upset because the amount is much higher than they thought it would be. You will hear statements like "But how is it $43? I didn't buy anything that costs more than $5"
People that failed to grasp arithmetic cannot reason about numbers to a useful degree.
> People that failed to grasp arithmetic cannot reason about numbers to a useful degree.
I think you're extrapolating far too much from such a simple interaction, which doesn't imply anything about ability to reason about numbers, just their ability to compute addition. If you say "if a is larger than b, and b is larger than c, is a larger than c?", you're testing numerical reasoning ability.
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