Mathematical Thinking with Cheese

I was getting a slice of American cheese from a package, by feel, planning to cover a piece of toast with it. But I wanted to see the piece I was taking and other pieces left behind, to judge whether I could piece together enough cheese to cover the toast. I was thinking it did not matter which pieces I used, as long as the toast was fully covered.

One sees this as an example of “mathematical thinking”, where the equivalence of two narratives (alternate ways of piecing the cheese together) are considered equivalent because they produce the same result. This shows the ubiquity of such choices in daily actions and highlight ‘narrative’ as a way to describe alternative plans.