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arithfrontier

confirmedPython · CPUModel behavior & reasoningJuly 6, 2026

the question

Where does small-model exact arithmetic break down by digit length, and does CoT push the wall back?

what came out

Multiplication cliffs at 3-4 digits before addition does, the frontier shrinks with model size, and CoT extends it -- the opposite of its effect on retrieval multiple choice. Self-generated exact ground truth.

method & receipts

  • Result: confirmed
  • Reproducible one script re-runs the whole thing from scratch.
  • Independently reviewed an adversarial review pass, kept in the repo.
  • Machine-readable claims every reported number, in a checkable file.
  • Tested — a correctness/benchmark suite ships alongside the code.

→ read the code and re-run it

github.com/v-code01/arithfrontier