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→Addition & sum: reply to Ed
#Move this discussion to [[talk:addition]]
#Move this discussion to [[talk:addition]]
#Consider that our readers began learning about addition by adding integers. Very few people are good at adding fractions; do you know off the top of your head that 1/3 + 1/4 = 7/12? --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 19:00, 4 November 2008 (EST)
#Consider that our readers began learning about addition by adding integers. Very few people are good at adding fractions; do you know off the top of your head that 1/3 + 1/4 = 7/12? --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 19:00, 4 November 2008 (EST)
I think everyone began learning about addition by adding integers, but at this point (high school) they know that addition can be done on other kinds of numbers. So the intro paragraph should be fairly general, saying something like "addition is an operation/function that takes two numbers (addends) and produces a third (the sum). This operation has the intuitive sense of combining two different sizes to yield a total size. In its most basic form, addition is a function on integers, where it corresponds to counting, however addition can be performed on many different numbers and numerical objects. Addition is commutative, associative and has an identity, zero." After that, we can get into specifics about the simplest and most specific case (whole numbers/integers) and then fractions, decimals, and then real numbers (and beyond -- complex numbers, adding functions, matrices, etc). I think the main exposition should build up the idea from basics, but the intro should define the term in the more general form that they'll be using in high school. -[[User:Foxtrot|Foxtrot]] 19:56, 4 November 2008 (EST)