Chapter 498 478 Learning Arithmetic (2)
"Are you sure you want to study?" Xia Tian asked.
Learning mathematics is not only boring, but most importantly, she is worried that learning this part will be difficult.
Asking a primitive Homo sapiens to learn numerical calculations is somewhat unreasonable...
"Then I'll learn as much as I can." Si Ye didn't back down and said calmly, "I don't know how far I can go, but I'll just do my best. I think the number you mentioned is very important, and it will definitely be useful in many places in the future."
"You are right." Xia Tian agreed with him.
Although mathematics is not an easy subject to learn, it is a very important tool in production and life.
Even if you only learn simple addition and subtraction in the end, it should be enough in this animal world where production relations are relatively simple.
Xia Tian found a long, thin wooden stick and this time taught on the wall. "Since you said it sincerely, I'm living with you now and have received a lot of care from you. That's my tuition fee paid in advance. We agreed that as long as you want to learn, I will teach you. If you want to stop, you can tell me at any time."
Si Ye agreed, "Okay."
"Then let's continue learning." Xia Tian put down the half-finished brush in her hand and began to teach the next part of the content. "Previously, we only became familiar with the nine numbers. Now let's learn to count. What method did you use to count before?"
In the original owner's memory, the counting method of this era was very simple. They only used the simplest knotted ropes to record events. There was no specific concept of numbers. Once a certain number was exceeded, the number would be reset to zero and started again.
Si Ye originally lived in Dongfang City, and his methods were probably similar.
Sure enough, he replied, "The way we count is to use the ten fingers on both hands as a whole. For large numbers, we count the number of wholes and then carve it on the stone tablet for record."
"You mean, we have to stop counting when we reach a number above ten?" Si Ye's answer was within Xia Tian's expectations. She said, "Well, now I'm going to teach you a method that won't require you to stop counting at ten. Instead, you can continue counting forever, without any boundaries. And... you only need to use the nine numbers we just learned."
Si Ye felt that what she said was simply like a fairy tale. Could this method, which could not be verified by experience in real life, really exist?
"Let's establish a rule of increasing the number. Each time we count a number, we increase it by one." Xia Tian wrote the nine numbers "0" to "9" one at a time on the flat earthen wall. Then she said, "Up to this point, the calculation method is the same as yours, except that I've changed it to my own way of expressing it. Next, I'm going to introduce a new concept - addition and subtraction."
She wrote the symbols "+" and "-" on the wall. "So-called addition and subtraction are calculation methods that indicate the increase or decrease of a number. For example, from 1 to 2, you add one, but from 5 to 4, you subtract one. The meaning is increase or decrease, which is easy to understand."
"I understand. What I mean is that this is a way to record changes in numbers and can be used to represent changes in numbers." Si Ye replied.
(End of this chapter)
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