Poll: the sum(7,9)

[Jerry Balzano]

I actually think of the numbers as "characters" (agent-based 
computation?), so "9" has its own characteristic "9-behavior", "8" has 
its own "8-behavior", and so on.  Everybody, I would claim, learns 
"10-behavior", for example.  So the interesting question becomes, how 
many integers have "characters" like this?  My answer would be that, 
within limits, most of numbers under 100 have some kind of character, 
although in some cases the "character-sketch" would be pretty meager.  
At least, most of them have a "prime vs. composite" flag filled in, and 
if they're composite, then part of their character includes what their 
factors are.  Of course, these aspects of their character are more 
important for multiplication and division than for addition and 
subtraction.  For the latter, "13" inherits character from "3" mostly 
but also a little from "1".  And "38" has mostly "8" character but also 
a little "3" character and even a tiny bit of "4" character (because 
it's closer to 40 than to 30; add 38? under some circumstances I'll use 
the "4" character of 38 and "add 40", then "subtract 2", along the 
lines that some people have posted).  Welcome to the world of 
anthropomorphic epistemology ....

- Jerry

On Mar 14, 2005, at 8:38 PM, Mark Swindell wrote:

> I've got a question I'd be interested in hearing from as many of the 
> list as care to respond.
>
> It's this:  How do you mentally process simple addition/subtraction 
> facts?  What actually happens in your brain to elicit 16 when you hear 
> 7+9? (for example)

On Mar 14, 2005, at 10:09 PM, Mark Swindell wrote:

> To clarify:  7 and 9 were arbitrary numbers.  It could have been any 
> two single digit addends.  I didn't mean to focus on the manipulating 
> the 9 factor.  3 and 5, 6 and 8, what process do you use to instantly 
> know, or are there calculations involved?