Vn017A

Arithmetic Ripples

5/28/77

After the session in which I introduced Miriam to adding large numbers (see Home Session 4, 5/28), passing Miriam’s room I noticed in her open loose-leaf book a page of computation. Miriam later gave it to me and I include it as Addendum 17 – 1.

Note that the written form of the equations mimics the horizontal form used in our introduction (see addendum 1 in Home Session 4). Additionally, Miriam attempted here a subtraction with large numbers (i.e. 80 – 7 = 73), her suggestion which I turned down during Home Session 4. Place value, as a topic of interest to Miriam, appears not only in her large numbers, but also in the directly contrasting sums: 11 + 1 = 12 and 1 + 1 = 2.

When she gave me the page, Miriam explained her attempt to subtract 7 from 1; how 1 minus 1 was zero and 1 minus 7 was zero. I expect she will conceive of the negative integers soon.

Relevance

These incidents document the ways computation crops up in Miriam’s world.

Addendum 17-1