When you put together unequal groups, can you only add? I'm learning Multiplication as Repeated Addition
No, when you put together unequal groups, you can perform both addition and multiplication operations.
While the concept of multiplication as repeated addition can be a helpful way to understand the idea of multiplication, it is also important to recognize that multiplication is more than just adding equal groups.
To understand multiplication as repeated addition, let's consider an example:
Suppose you have 3 groups of apples, and each group has 4 apples. If you want to find out how many apples you have in total, you can add them up: 4 + 4 + 4 = 12. This is an example of using addition to find the total number of apples.
However, when you use multiplication, you can find the total more efficiently. In this case, you can represent the total number of apples as 3 groups of 4 apples. Using the multiplication operation, you can write it as 3 x 4 = 12. This means you have 3 groups, each with 4 apples, resulting in a total of 12 apples.
So, while addition can be used to combine unequal groups, multiplication allows you to find the total more efficiently and also extends beyond just adding groups, particularly when dealing with equal groups or larger numbers.