Re: [PATCH] pass constants as first argument to st_mult()

On Mon, Aug 01, 2016 at 03:31:45PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

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*1* I have a slight suspicion that this is cultural, i.e. how
arithmetic is taught in grade schools.  When an apple costs 30 yen
and I have 5 of them, I was taught to multiply 30x5 to arrive at
150, not 5x30=150, and I am guessing that is because the former
matches the natural order of these two numbers (cost, quantity) in
the language I was taught.

You might be right. I was trying to figure out what is "natural" for me
in these cases, but after thinking about it for 2 minutes, I'm pretty
sure anything resembling "natural" is lost as I try to out-think myself. :)

Do native English speakers (or more in general Europeans) think of
the apple example more like "5 apples, 30 cents each", and do 5x30?

I think in my head I rewrite any multiplication like "N of M" as having
"N" as the smaller number. I.e., it is conceptually simpler to me to
count five 30's, then 30 five's (even though I do not implement it in my
head as a sequence of additions, of course; I'd probably do that
particular case as "half of ten 30's").

I have no idea if that's cultural or not, though. I'm pretty sure "half
of ten 30's" was not taught in schools. All I remember of grade school
multiplication is them insisting we write down all of our steps, no
matter how trivial the problem would be to do in our heads. :)

-Peff