How can I be certain that 5 + 5 = 10?

Question

To all you people who think that I can be certain that 5 + 5 = 10, you're not accounting for the possibility that my senses could be deceiving me or that problems like 5 + 5 involve not a little circularity.

If numbers or math are human constructs, then I cannot be certain that 5 + 5 = 10 because that could be an arbitrary determination that is far from being absolute.

Some schools of thought do say that math is about the senses (a posteriori). Others such as the continental rationalists would say that math is a priori or pre-experiential.

Answer 1

use your fingers

Answer 2

The fact that 5+5=10 whether you know that it is true or not doesn't change. Math and logic concepts are the most stable of all sciences, meaning that things can change but math would be the last thing to change.

if you program computers you most likely need to find out the math and logic of what you are trying to do and if you are wrong it will show an error or do something other than what you intended to do unless the computer makes a mistake which is extreemly rare.

Answer 3

Math has nothing to do with the sense. All math is derived from a sequence of ones, which follow an infinite pattern that does not change.

We can be certain that 5 + 5 = 10 because we may verify this truth by examing the names in the sequence. If we count 1,2,3,4,5 after five, we get to ten.

If you're still unclear, I'd be happen to clear up any quesitons:
[e-mail]

Answer 4

In this realm, 5+5=10 and can easily be proved mathematically. However, this answer may not be absolute if taken into other realms. You cannot be certain that the same logic that functions in our realm will function similarly in another. Therefore, 5+5 does not neccesarily equal ten.

Answer 5

math is infinite, therefor 5+5 can = 10 as also 1 x10 = 10 and on and on

I got rid of this type of thinking after I took all those pills

Answer 6

IF you use the numbers through perception, you can't. If you like Geometry, maybe another concept can help you understand this better.

2+2=5, It's called Divine Math.

Look it up and study.

Good luck!

Answer 7

Well, if you have five apples and then another five and you put them together, you have ten apples all together, but you know that isn't always the case. There is a certain way in Mathematics using logarithms or something, I always forget. Anyways, it comes out to 2+2=5. I don't know how, but it does.

Answer 8

im not not exactly up to date with your extended vocab in your additional details, but i think i can help you with your question. What you should do, is take a pile of beans. count out a group of five and put it in a pile. then, count out another pile of five. put the two piles together. count them. you will not get 55. i'm willing to guess that you will count ten beans. therefore:

a group of five plus a group of five equals a group of ten,
5+5=10

Answer 9

Numbers are simply a human concept, like pretty much everything else.
We invented that 5 is 5 and that when you add two 5's together, they make 10.
you can be certain, because that's what it is, what we made it to be.

Answer 10

Give a blind person 10 sticks and tell him to count them.

Will his senses deceive him?

What about a deaf person?

Will he be able to count those sticks despite his lack of sense?

Math isn't based on senses. It is a conceptual formation of percepts.

Answer 11

Because someone assigned those numbers to that amount of objects, if five had been named four, then four plus four would equal ten, but it is testable and obviously works. It's a fact of life that you can't change.