On Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 9:13 PM, Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Mon, Aug 01, 2016 at 03:31:45PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: > >> Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> writes: >> >> >> *1* I have a slight suspicion that this is cultural, i.e. how >> >> arithmetic is taught in grade schools. When an apple costs 30 yen >> >> and I have 5 of them, I was taught to multiply 30x5 to arrive at >> >> 150, not 5x30=150, and I am guessing that is because the former >> >> matches the natural order of these two numbers (cost, quantity) in >> >> the language I was taught. >> > >> > You might be right. I was trying to figure out what is "natural" for me >> > in these cases, but after thinking about it for 2 minutes, I'm pretty >> > sure anything resembling "natural" is lost as I try to out-think myself. :) >> >> Do native English speakers (or more in general Europeans) think of >> the apple example more like "5 apples, 30 cents each", and do 5x30? > > I think in my head I rewrite any multiplication like "N of M" as having > "N" as the smaller number. I.e., it is conceptually simpler to me to > count five 30's, then 30 five's (even though I do not implement it in my > head as a sequence of additions, of course; I'd probably do that > particular case as "half of ten 30's"). > > I have no idea if that's cultural or not, though. I'm pretty sure "half > of ten 30's" was not taught in schools. All I remember of grade school > multiplication is them insisting we write down all of our steps, no > matter how trivial the problem would be to do in our heads. :) Yeah, I would be tempted to write all the steps too like this: "An apple costs 30 yen and I have 5 of them" means: Cost(1 apple) = 30 cents Cost(5 apples) = 5 * Cost(1 apple) = 5 * 30 cents = 150 cents so it would be more "5x30=150" than "30x5" in this case for me. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html