Vn01703

Arithmetic Ripples

6/1/77

Miriam was playing in the kitchen with Scurry this morning. Gretchen and I were discussing some topic, and I mentioned a division problem. Miriam piped up, “I can divide, Daddy. . . . 8 divided by 8 is 1.”

I congratulated her on her prowess. For Miriam the formula she recited constitutes division. The division problem is the one I executed in playing Dr. World’s computer game (in Home Session 5, 5/30). Despite her ability to divide sets concretely (see Miriam at 6: Arithmetic), Miriam does not appear to associate dividing with “division,” a process for which she has, I believe, this one example.

Relevance

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