What is the name of the terms of the four essential arithmetic operations?

short answers for big questions

Pupils cannot sometimes solve some problems. It is due not to the fact they have some difficulty in Maths but because they cannot understand the test sheet of the problem. How can you ask someone to factorize an expression if that person doesn´t even know what is the meaning of factorize, or even what a factor is. One of the several subjects that is focused during the first school years and the one that is faster forgotten, is connected with the name of the terms (nomenclature or terminology) used in the four basic essential operations: the addition, the subtraction, the multiplication and the division.

four essential arithmetic operations

Attention: the nomenclature of the terms is not the same in every country of english language.

  • Addition: 2 + 5 = 7 (2: augend or summand; 5: addend or summand; 7: sum)
  • Subtraction: 7 - 3 = 4 (7: minuend; 3: subtrahend; 4: difference)
  • Multiplication: 4 x 2 = 8 (4: multiplier or factor; 2: multiplicand or factor; 8: product)
  • Division: 6 : 3 = 2 (6: dividend; 3: divisor; 2: quotient)

In conclusion there are two very important rules connected with the subtraction and the division.

  • Fundamental identity of the Subtraction: the minuend is equal to the sum of the subtrahend with the difference.
  • Fundamental Identity of the Division: the dividend is equal to the product of the divisor by the quotient followed with the sum of the remainder.


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