The Foundation

In anything you do there are core principles that make up the foundation of what you are doing. With athletics it is usually the stance or basic position. I am a wrestler. In wrestling it does not matter how many tricks you know, if you cannot do the basics, then you will never be great. This is true in math. No matter how many shortcuts or tricks you know for multiplying, dividing, or taking derivatives, if you cannot do addition you cannot do math.

When it comes down to the basics, which is where we are going to start, adding one is the foundation of all math. If we continually add one, then we start doing a function with the numbers called counting. Could you imagine a world without counting. However we cannot count if the numbers do not have names. Could you imagine telling a person you wanted five apples without telling them numbers. All you could say is, "more," or, "less," and it would be a huge guessing game until they get it right. Lets take a look at Larry the Caveman-Cyclops and see how he handles a world where there are no numbers.

Wow hopefully Larry will learn to count so he can impress Vironica. It would have made Larry's life much easier if he simply could have just said, "I want five apples."

The challenge for this lesson is to go the whole day and not use numbers to convey messages. I know a few of you will think about it and less may even try it, but just think about it. If you do not know the numbers then you challenge is to learn them. Maybe try learning them in another language. 

Good luck.