Addition

An addition problem is when we add something to something.
When we see the sign $+$ that let's us know that it's an addition problem.

Let's look at an example –

Daria has $3$ blue balls

An image displaying three blue circles aligned horizontally, suggesting a visual representation of the number three.

Max has $2$ orange balls

An image displaying two orange circles aligned horizontally, suggesting a visual representation of the number two.

How many balls do Daria and Max have together?

Let's count the balls -

A visual representation of five dots: three blue dots numbered 1, 2, and 3 on the top row, and two orange dots numbered 4 and 5 on the bottom row. This arrangement visually demonstrates counting or addition.

Together they have $5$ balls in total.
The addition exercise is: $3+2=5$

Detailed explanation

Start practice

Test yourself on addition!

Add ten units to the number 72.

What is the resulting number?

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Addition

Now we'll move on to a slightly harder exercise.
Solve the exercise $13+4=$

Let's use balls-
We have a group of $13$ balls

An image displaying a total of 15 blue dots arranged in three rows. Each row contains five evenly spaced dots, visually demonstrating a grouping concept often used in basic math exercises or counting activities.

and a group of $4$ balls

An image featuring four orange dots arranged in a square formation, often used to represent grouping or counting in basic math exercises.

The plus $+$ reminds us that we need to add them together.

Upon counting how many balls we have in total we discover that we have $17$ balls.
$13+4=17$

An arrangement of 15 blue dots and 5 orange dots, visually grouped to represent a total count or a mathematical operation like addition.

Well done!
Now let's proceed to adding without needing to draw circles.
When I have any number, for example $15$ , and want to add $3$ to it,
like in the exercise $15+3=$
Imagine that we already have $15$ and we just want to add $3$ more.
Let's count:

First we'll add $1$ and obtain $16$

A black silhouette of a hand showing three fingers raised, with the number "16" positioned above the hand, potentially illustrating counting or arithmetic concepts.

Let's continue to add $1$ and we'll obtain $17$

A black silhouette of a hand showing three fingers raised. The numbers "16" and "17" are positioned above two of the raised fingers, suggesting an incremental counting or mathematical concept.

Finally we'll add $1$ and obtain $18$ !

A black silhouette of a hand with three fingers raised. The numbers "16," "17," and "18" are labeled above the three raised fingers, representing sequential counting or an addition concept.

The answer
$15+3=18$

Let's do another exercise –

What is the solution to the following exercise:
$12+4=$
Let's imagine we have $12$ and we're simply adding $4$ .
Add $1$ – we obtain $13$
Add another $1$ – we obtain $14$
Add another $1$ – we obtain $15$
Add another $1$ – and we obtain $16$

We added $4$ and obtained $16$ !
Therefore:
$12+4=16$

Now let's move on to slightly more advanced exercises!

Imagine that Annabeth has $22$ chocolate cubes

An image depicting two rectangular grids, each divided into 2 rows and 5 columns (10 cells total), and a smaller rectangular grid below them, divided into 1 row with 2 cells.

and Gilbert has $15$ chocolate cubes.

An image displaying one rectangular grid at the top with 2 rows and 5 columns (10 cells total), and below it, a row of 5 smaller square boxes aligned horizontally.

How can we know how many chocolate cubes they have together without drawing or adding 1 each time?
Observe the following method

The numbers we have contain tens and ones.
Let's see how many tens Annabeth has – $20$
and how many tens Gilbert has – $10$
We'll add them together and obtain the following $20+10=30$
Now let's proceed to the ones – $2$ ones for Annabeth
and $5$ ones for Gilbert –
Added together we obtain $5+2=7$