Understanding Addition and Subtraction Tutorial

What is addition?

1 + 5 = 6

This reads "one plus five is equal to six". But what exactly does that mean?

The basics of addition is adding a given number/amount things together. This is the reason it is called addition.

If you have take a (one) book and place it onto a table, there will be one book placed on the table.

If you take another book and place it onto the table, there will be two books placed on the table.

If you take one more book and place it onto the table, there will be a total of three books placed on the table.

There are 3 books. Each book stands for '1'.

1 book on the table

1 book + 1 book = 2 books on the table

1 book + 1 book + 1 book = 3 books on the table

What would happen if you add another book to the table?

3 books on the table + 1 more book = 4 books on the table

You get a total of 4 books on a table.

Now what if you were to add more than one book at a time? What if we were to add 3 books?

In the previous examples, we've only added 1 book each time: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 and 3 + 1 = 4.

That gave us a total of 4 books on the table. Instead, let's add a total of three more books to the table:

4 books on table + 3 more books on table = 7 books on the table

1 book + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book = 4 books

4 books + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book = 7 books

4 + 3 = 7

Let's now add ten more books to the table:

7 books + 10 more books = 17 books
7 books + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book + 1 book = 7 books + 10 books
7 books + 10 books = 17 total books
7 + 10 = 17

Well, there you have it! That's the basics of addition! You can even add more books to the table. You can add hundreds books, or even a thousands (just as long as the table holds it). You can even add together different things like apples in a basket; pennies in your pocket; cards in a deck; houses on a block, and so on! The basics of adding is simply adding things to something to make it more. You can add one at a time. You can add two at a time. You can add three at a time. You can even add ten at a time, and even a million at a time! Simply, the more you add, that's how much more it will be!

The Basics of Subtraction:

What is subtraction?

Subtraction is the exact opposite of addition! Instead of adding things together, you are taking things away. Instead of it become more and more, it is becomes less and less the more we take away. Subtraction means 'to make less', or to 'take away'.

Let's say there is an apple tree, and on this apple tree there are 24 apples. We've counted them all: 1 + 1 + 1... and so on....All the way up to 24, and so we have a total of 24 apples.

Instead of adding apples to the tree (to make it have more apples than before), we are going to be taking away apples to make it to have less apples than before. We are going to keep subtracting the apples until we have no (zero) apples left.

If we take 3 apples from the tree, how many total apples are left on the tree? Let's see:

24 apples - 3 apples = 21 apples

We just simply went down (in amount of apples) three times: 24 down to 23. 24 down to 22. 24 down to 21.

We took 3 apples from the total and now we have exactly that much less than before:

24 - 3 = 21

Let's now take 7 more apples from the 21 apples on the tree. How many apples are left?

Let's see:

21 apples - 7 apples =

If we take 1 apple away from the 21 apples, we will have 20 apples left on the tree.

If we take another apple away from the 20 apples on the tree, we will have 19 apples left.

If we take another apple away from the 19 apples on the tree, we will have 18 apples left.

If we take another apple away from the 18 apples on the tree, we will have 17 apples left.

If we take another apple away from the 17 apples on the tree, we will have 16 apples left.

If we take another apple away from the 16 apples on the tree, we will have 15 apples left.

If we take another apple away from the 15 apples on the tree, we will have 14 apples left.

So how many times did we take an apple away from the 21 apples on the tree? Seven (7).

We've taken away seven apples from the tree and now we have only 14 apples left:

21 - 7 = 14

21 - (1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1) = 14

Let's take away ten more apples from the 14, how many do we have left?

14 - 10 = 4 apples left on the tree.

Now lets take away 4 apples from the tree, how many do we have left on the tree?

4 - 4 = 0 apples on the tree. There are no apples left on the tree.

There we have it. That is simply subtraction. It is taking things away one by one, or by groups. How much you take away is how much less it will be from before. The more you take away the less it will be! You can even subtract water out of your cup; you can subtract socks from your drawer; you can subtract cookies from a cookie jar; and you can subtract children from a park. Whatever it may be, you are making something less by taking away, by subtraction, and whatever's left is whatever's left.