Can 1/3 and 1/3 = 2/6? It seemed so
I can&#x27;t imagine doing this to a class of fourth graders but I don&#x27;t think her thinking is wrong. I think the correct way to views maths notation is that it&#x27;s a language and we should treat people using it &quot;incorrectly&quot; as a grammar mistake and try to understand the idea they&#x27;re trying to express.<p>The fourth grader is saying &quot;1&#x2F;3 + 1&#x2F;3 = 2&#x2F;6&quot; but the idea she&#x27;s trying to get across is that &quot;avg(1&#x2F;3,1&#x2F;3) = 1&#x2F;3 but the size of the whole has doubled.&quot;<p>It&#x27;s hard when the language required to express the ideas they&#x27;re having is just a little to advanced. And nothing about this stops when you get older. The &quot;just a little outside your knowledge&quot; keeps stretching on forever.