Sum for Dummies

Sum is a word that we often use when we want to talk about finding the total or adding things together. It's like when you have some candies in one hand and some more in the other, and you want to know how many you have in total. So when we say "sum," we want to know what the total amount is when we combine or add together different things.

For example, let's say you have 3 apples and your friend gives you 2 more apples. What's the sum of the apples you have now? Well, we can add up the number of apples you started with (which is 3) with the number of apples your friend gave you (which is 2). When you add 3 and 2 together, we find that the sum, or the total number of apples you have, is 5.

But wait, there's more! The word "sum" can also refer to a mathematical operation called addition, which is the process of finding the sum. Addition is like putting together pieces of a puzzle, where each number is a piece and adding them brings us to the final picture.

Let's consider another example. Say you have 4 blocks, and you want to add 2 more blocks. Just like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, we take the first number (4) and combine it with the second number (2). When we add them together, we find the sum is 6. So in this case, the sum is the final number we get after adding.

To sum it up (no pun intended), we use the word "sum" to talk about finding the total or adding things together. It could be the total number of objects, like apples or blocks, or it could be the result we get after performing addition, a mathematical operation. So the next time you hear the word "sum," think about combining things or finding the total, just like adding up candies or solving a puzzle.