Then “X” + “Y” = “XY”. For example |||| + ||| = |||||||.
It turns out the difficulty in addition is the insight that ordinals are just an unfriendly representation. One needs a map between representations in order that the addition problem becomes trivial.
Someone needs to teach them how to count: {}, {{}}, {{},{{}}}, {{},{{}},{{},{{}}}}...
even less esoteric: |, ||, |||, ||||, |||||, ….
Then “X” + “Y” = “XY”. For example |||| + ||| = |||||||.
It turns out the difficulty in addition is the insight that ordinals are just an unfriendly representation. One needs a map between representations in order that the addition problem becomes trivial.