# Arithmetic trees \[ActiveMind\]
**URL:** https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963
**Category:** Mini Projects
**Created:** [October 3, 2024, 9:04am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963 "2024-10-03T09:04:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2024, 9:04am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/1 "2024-10-03T09:04:50Z")
**Project Summary:**
Watch [How to do arithmetic with tree diagrams | Understand math and philosophy better](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cPIvOce_4w) and make 10 arithmetic trees in order to get more familiar with trees and doing projects on this forum.
**Goal:**
Practice using trees and practice doing a project on the CF forum.
**Success criteria (& optional failure criteria):**
- Have watched the video
- Make 10 arithmetic trees correctly
Do this within tomorrow (2024-10-04).
**Big picture goal, why you want to do this, or CF relevance:**
I want to learn CF philosophy by doing projects on the forum.
**Plan:**
First watch the video, then make a math expression to solve using a tree. I will make the expressions progressively harder.
**Context:** (optional – fill out or delete the context section)
I have made arithmetic trees before in private. I have read _Simply Scheme_ and the start of SICP, they contain s-expressions of arithmetic which are similar to arithmetic trees.
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### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2024, 9:25am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/2 "2024-10-03T09:25:40Z")
Additional context: I am familiar with trees from data structures in programming more generally.
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### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2024, 9:33am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/3 "2024-10-03T09:33:54Z")
Practice from the video:
I forgot to time them.
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### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2024, 1:51pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/4 "2024-10-03T13:51:11Z")
I create an expression, then I look at the timer and write down the time. After I have translated into a tree I calculate it and then write the time for when I finish. Finally I check whether the result was correct by typing the expression in [wolphramalpha](https://www.wolframalpha.com/), that way it is easier to see whether I typed the correct equation.
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### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2024, 1:56pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/5 "2024-10-03T13:56:50Z")
I made a mistake in this one, so I did another similar expression but simpler.
The 15 minutes in between was spent on figuring out the mistake.
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### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2024, 2:13pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/6 "2024-10-03T14:13:35Z")
I thought no. 9 was similar in difficulty to no. 7
This one didn’t just have an arithmetic mistake, I also copied the wrong number from the equation. I didn’t recalculate that since I knew the structure of the tree was correct. I think that mistake matters. I think fixing the mistake just requires more focus and practicing more trees?
I thought to include the expression I used in wolphramalpha for the last tree. It was:
(6(3-4)(4-6^2))/(2+4)-(5+2)/(6(1-3))
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### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/7 "2024-10-03T16:03:35Z")
I didn’t specify what would happen if I didn’t get some of the trees right. I’ll make trees until I have 10 correct ones.
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### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2024, 10:12am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/8 "2024-10-04T10:12:15Z")
expression for last tree: (2(3-6)(1-2^3))/(2(3+2))-(7(4-3))/5+(4^2)/15
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### Author:  [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/9 "2024-10-04T11:31:39Z")
# Project Conclusion
I met the success criteria. I watched the video then made 10 correct arithmetic trees. The success criteria could have been clearer, since it could mean that I should have made only 10 trees in total and that any mistakes would be failure. Another interpretation could be that failure would mean I couldn’t eventually find the errors and correct any of the trees with errors.
The plan could have been more detailed, I could have talked about timing the exercises and how I would check that the results were correct.
I made two simple arithmetic mistakes and one mistake putting the wrong number in a node. While doing higher level math, e.g. calculus, linear algebra, diff.eq, I think I do simple arithmetic mistakes too often. I could work on automating arithmetic more and mastering it. I think I want to work on grammar before doing more math though. For this project the more important part was the trees themselves, which I think I understood well.
The main benefit was just completing a project on the forum.