This paper proposes a structural account of arithmetic operations that departs from the standard procedural view. Rather than treating operations as computational procedures that produce results, the present framework treats them as mechanisms of observation: they reveal what already exists within an arrangement of units. The central finding concerns the disappearance of 'times' in multiplication — not as a convention but as a structural necessity. 'Times' is not a quantity; it is a mechanism of observation. Once used, it has done its work. Three readings of the same image, the distinction between arrangement-mode and quantity, and the connection to Euclid's Definition 20 are developed. The algorithm is shown to be the story of an image, not the image itself.
Sotiris Delis (Wed,) studied this question.