When I was young, I asked my mom, "You know how 1+1 is 2, and 3+3 is 6, and 7+7 is 14? Well, what 2 numbers make 5?" She said, "Well, 2 + 3 is 5". I said, "NO!!! I mean what two SAME numbers make 5?"
She told me that there weren't any. I couldn't accept that answer. I must have spent an hour trying to come up with the correct answer. No, I didn't know about fractions or decimals at that age.
A childhood belief about counting
others believed things like this
- I used to believe that numbers had gender, that the odd numbers were boys and even numbers were girls. — Evelyn
- Numbers went up to 100 then restarted at zero.Anon
- The highest of all numbers was "a finnety."— Becky
- i used to belive that 1 to 10 were the only numbers and all others were made up.....— Eric
- I used to believe there was a limit on the numbers you could count — Carmen
- I used to be terrified of the numbers 18 and 19. I think I thought that when you turned 18 or 19, you die.— Emmy