Addit

Addition, usually denoted with the plus sign +, is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication, and division. The addition of two whole numbers results in the total or sum of those values combined. For example, the adjacent image shows two columns of apples, one with three apples and the other with two apples, totaling to five apples. This observation is expressed as "3 + 2 = 5", which is read as "three plus two equals five". Besides counting items, addition can also be defined and executed without referring to concrete objects, using abstractions called numbers instead, such as integers, real numbers, and complex numbers. Addition belongs to arithmetic, a branch of mathematics. In algebra, another area of mathematics, addition can also be performed on abstract objects such as vectors, matrices, and elements of additive groups. Addition has several important properties. It is commutative, meaning that the order of the numbers being added does not matter, so 3 + 2 = 2 + 3. It is also associative, meaning that when one adds more than two numbers, the order in which addition is performed does not matter. Repeated addition of 1 is the same as counting (see Successor function). Addition of 0 does not change a number. Addition also obeys rules concerning related operations such as subtraction and multiplication. Performing addition is one of the simplest numerical tasks to perform. Addition of very small numbers is accessible to toddlers; the most basic task, 1 + 1, can be performed by infants as young as five months, and even by some members of other animal species. In primary education, students are taught to add numbers in the decimal system, beginning with single digits and progressively tackling more difficult problems. Mechanical aids range from the ancient abacus to the modern computer, where research on the most efficient implementations of addition continues to this day.