Addition

Along with subtraction, multiplication, and division, addition is one of the four fundamental arithmetic operations

Of the four, addition is undoubtedly the most basic operation, considering that the other three are defined through a logic chain that starts from addition: subtraction is defined as the inverse of addition, multiplication as a recursive addition, division as the inverse of multiplication.

An operation based on the existence of a numeral system

Although it is a basic operation, performing an addition requires sophisticated mental skills. To understand why let’s imagine a concrete case. In a primitive society, thousands of years ago, a farmer collected the eggs laid by her hens and placed them in some containers of different sizes. One contains four eggs, another six, another ten, and so on. She wants to know how many eggs she has in all. She can count the eggs one after the other, moving from one container to another, but it is easy to get confused. It is more convenient to count the eggs in each container and then add up the partial sums.

However, to carry out this apparently trivial operation, first of all, she must know how to count. And counting is a very complex task. In fact, unless you stop at particularly low numbers…