substraction

Substraction is a fundamental arithmetic operation that represents the process of removing or taking away a quantity from another. It is the inverse of addition. The result of a substraction is called the difference. The symbol used to denote substraction is a minus sign (-). For example, in the equation 5 - 3 = 2, the number 5 is the minuend, the number 3 is the subtrahend, and 2 is the difference.

Substraction can be thought of as counting backward. If you have five objects and remove three, you are left with two. This concept is readily understood by young children. In more abstract terms, substraction is used to find the difference between two numbers, which can indicate how much larger or smaller one number is than another.

The properties of substraction are different from those of addition. Substraction is not commutative, meaning that the order of the numbers matters (a - b is generally not equal to b - a). It is also not associative, meaning that the grouping of numbers in a sequence of subtractions can affect the outcome (a - b - c is not necessarily equal to a - (b - c)).

Substraction is a critical operation in mathematics and is used extensively in various fields, including science, engineering, finance, and everyday life. It is essential for solving problems involving quantities, measurements, and comparisons. For instance, calculating change at a store or determining the remaining balance in a bank account both rely on substraction.

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