Why 2 plus 2 is 4 why not 5?

Answer 1

why 2 plus 2 is 4 but why not 5?

it is not 5 cause 2 + 2 equal 4 and it can not equal 5

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Your curiosity and skepticism are healthy, admirable traits. Never accept what others tell you just because someone else said it. Whenever possible, check it out.

If you want to check out everything you learn in math for yourself, you'll spend a lot of time at it. But hey! By all means, knock yourself out. If it'll help you feel better about math, then go ahead and test everything. It's easy to check out the things that others tell you about Math ... you don't need any laboratory or special equipment.

For this experiment, all you'll need is a handful of beans or small stones, and you do also need a quiet place where you can carry out your research without interference or distraction.

Now, here's the protocol:

-- On a smooth, empty, level surface, place exactly two (2) beans or small stones. After placing them, count them to verify the correct number. Put away the rest of your supply, in your pocket or in a drawer, to avoid mixing them with the two active specimens in the experimental area.

-- Walk away from the area. Do something else for some period of time. Examples may include: Take a walk, have a cup of milk or tea, read a newspaper, catch a nap, play with a puppy or a baby, have a shower, etc.

-- After some time, return to the experimental area. From the primary supply of beans or stones, remove two (2). Place them in the palm of your hand, and return the main supply to your pocket. Count the items in your hand at least twice to confirm the correct number. When the quantity of two (2) has been verified, go on to the next step.

-- Move the two objects from your hand to the smooth, level experimental surface. Then relax, and take several cleansing breaths. The next step is the most crucial, and these things cannot be rushed.

-- Clear your mind of spurious thoughts, focus your attention, and COUNT the number of beans or stones that now appear on the experimental surface. Whatever that number is, it is the result of your earlier actions.

If the conditions in your research area have been undisturbed and free of outside interference, then your results will match the findings of countless intrepid investigators who have gone before you, through thousands of years of human history. The pattern that has emerged has amply demonstrated exactly what your own observations have confirmed ... that when two more are added to a process that likewise began with two previous, the result in a statistically compelling number of cases is: four!

But even this is not the end of the story, although there are of course the many who are intellectually ill equipped to absorb any more of it. They are the majority, who simply plod, bovine-like, through life, following their nostrils and repeating the mantra "two plus two is four" only because that is what they have always heard, never moved to ask 'why', but which you have come along and questioned at last.

The rest of the story is this: "2 + 2 = 4" is not some law of the universe in its higher dimensions, not some property of space and time. It is a human invention. The only law of the physical universe that is at work here is the fact that the same actions always produce the same result. The names of the actions, and of the result, are what we have given to them.

When we take the amount we call "two" and place it beside the amount we call "two", the result is always the same. And we human beings have decided to describe that result by calling it "four". And in the end, that's really the reason why.

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Alternatively, the given external link may change your mind on the mathematical side of the answer. Science never lies!