Vn001.02

Commutativity

5/8/77

As I sat transcribing the dialogue from recent logo sessions, I heard Robby inquire of Gretchen, at work in the kitchen, how many were 5 twelves. Gretchen simplified the computation by elaborating the problem: 5 twelves is half of 10 twelves. How much is 10 twelves? As Robby worked away on that problem, Miriam, playing at a puzzle within earshot of that conversation, piped up: “the answer is 60.”

Poor Robby! How frustrating when working on a different problem to be prevented by some one else’s interjecting the ‘correct’ answer. And yet, Miriam did have it right. I was quite worried that she had computed the answer by summing twelves (which Robby could have done, albeit with some difficulty and uncertainty) while he wrestled with the transformed problem,

Gretchen had been watching Miriam. She saw Miriam compute 5 twelves by finger-counting thus: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, / 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, / . . . 60. Thus Miriam’s procedure is more primitive than Robby’s but it is also more sophisticated. She makes use of the commutativity of basic arithmetic operations at every turn. Several weks ago, Miriam gave direct evidence of her use of commutativity in adding. Mimi Sinclair asked her: “How many is 17 plus 6?” ’23’ Miriam responded counting up from 17 on 6 fingers. When the query turned to 6 plus 17, Miriam responded with no hesitation, ’23, because it’s the same problem.

I speculate that she uses commutativity because it permits her to proceed to an answer which costs her little if wrong; Robby, more concerned with the correctness of his results than the unimpeded progress of the computation, is more inclined to ask for advice than to trust to a property, commutativity, which can give him an answer but one about whose correctness he is uncertain. This speculation may demean the actual extent of Miriam’s understanding.

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