[Cliffs]

I had a small brainstorm session with myself while watching football on television today.

The subject, HDR photography.

I have read quite a few articles, forum posts and blogs about this subject, yet I can't for some reason shake the thoughts I was having.
I'm hoping someone with way more photographic knowledge than I (that would be just about all of you), can explain why my thinking may be misconstrued.

Okay, I begin....
From what I gather HDR is the combining of more than 2 photos of different exposures into one photo to be post processed.

Now if I shoot 3 photos, one at -2 ev, one at 0 ev, and one at +2 ev, then I open these in a program like photomatix and begin the process to combine them into one, isn't the end result going to match the 0 ev shot?

Am I simplifying what HDR really is?

I mean I look at this as a mathematical equation....-2 ev + +2 ev should equal 0 ev, should it not?

How does the program change this calculation?

Is the difference really that much different?

Any feedback is welcome and thanks.