I was thinking of it while speaking to some of my friends and here is a realization I had!
me: I ask them what is 1 + 2 ?
response: ‘3’ came the response (with a vague stare indicating – do you think you are smart?)
me: My next question went what is your assumption?
response: Assumption? its plane maths! its arithmetic… (with the stare indicating that they were surprised with this)
me: Nope I just wondering if you realized the depth of what you just told!
response: ah!!! (with all expression of kind of frustration!, looking at each other.)
I then proceeded to ask them what is 2a + b; and the answer came (2a+b).
me: Then what is 2a + b + a
response: 3a + b
me: Yup! So what is your assumption!
response: they are like variables!
True! but the question here is essentially, do we really understand what like variables mean? They are variables true but – they are modeling something in the real world. What is that?
The variables essentially stand for class of objects; what I mean is here
Let me ask:- How much is 2 dogs + a cat (equivalent to 2a+b!)?
2 dogs + a cat (that is the answer, its nothing like 3 cats or 3 dogs)
This realization is so fundamental, I hope we realize the depth of every thing that we learn!
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