Maths lets us work with numbers and amounts of things. We can simulate reality in a virtual way on paper, computer or with items and models.
There are a couple main mathematical functions that can be done, like adding, taking away, dividing and multiplying. There are many more complicated functions depending on what you need.
Mathematics is the beginning of creating mental models, but it does have a very practical use in business, science, engineering, cooking, life planning, time and dates, measurement and geometry and many other fields.
Addition - The symbol for addition is "+", the word is plus. It allows you to combine two numbers into one. For example, 2+2=4, 4+4=8, 16+12=28.
This merged two numbers to form their sum.
Subtraction - The symbol for subtraction is "-", the word is negate. It takes away the second number from the first. 4-3=1. 4 is the first number, 3 is the second. This equals 1.
More examples, 2-2=0, 6-3=3, 15-5=10.
Multiplication - The symbol for multiplication is "* or x", called times. It takes the first number and adds it together by the amount of times the second number equals. So 2*3=6 takes 2 as our main number and 3 as our second which makes 3 2's. 2+2+2=6. You can also reverse it. 3*2=6 or 3+3=6.
More examples, 2*8=16, 12*5=60, 3*7=21.
Division - The symbol for division is "/", called divided by. In division the second number goes into the first as many times as it can, this is your answer.
For example, 10/5=2. 5+5=10 so two 5's go into 10 which gives us an answer of 2. 10/2=5, so it can be reversed to check your answer. Meaning the answer and divider can be flipped.
More examples, 4/1=4, 12/3=4, 14/7=2
Decimal point/Floating point numbers - Sometimes you'll run into an issue when dividing like how to work out what 11/5 is equal to. 5 goes into 11 two times but is left with an extra 1.
For this we can use decimal points to divide numbers into an infinite amount of smaller parts, like small change for money.
So 11/5=2.2 since 1/5=0.2. 5 0.2's create a 1. 0.2+0.2+0.2+0.2+0.2=1
Negative numbers - If you start at 0 and flip or reverse things, you'll go into the negatives. So adding negative -1 to 0 = -1. Adding -2 to -1 ='s -3.
Adding negative numbers to positive numbers acts like negating. So 2 + -2 = 0.
Zero - Zero is the medium plane or balancing point between positive and negative numbers. The upper and lower world of mathematics. * by or / by 0 will = 0.
Adding and subtracting with zero does work though so 2+0 or 0+2 ='s 2 while 2-0 or 0-2 ='s 0.
Algebra - Algebra allows us to substitute numbers with symbols like the common alphabet. a+2=4 is using algebra. We can solve this problem in reverse. What plus 2 equals 4? 2 does. So a ='s 2. Another example is 6/b=2. b would be 3 as 6/3='s 2 as 3 goes into 6 two times.