• Loki@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    Imagine a pizza. The pizza is 1. You cut the pizza into three slices: two slices are 1/4 (0.25) of the size of the pizza, the other slice is 2/4 (0.5) of the size of the pizza. We’ll ignore one of the 1/4 slices for this question, as we don’t need it.

    Compare the 0.25 slice and the 0.5 slice, this problem is essentially asking “how many times can I fit the 0.5 slice into the 0.25 slice?”, the answer to this is obviously… 0, if you’re thinking in integers. Okay, but how much of the 0.5 slice could you fit in…? Half (0.5) of it. So 0.5 fits 0.5 times into 0.25.

    Half of the slice that’s twice as big as the 0.25 slice fits into the 0.25 slice.

    Edit: Gone back and read other comments and… Holy shit y’all, have some compassion for people who struggle with maths? Nobody is helped or motivated by snarky comments. A concept that is easy to grasp for you might be difficult to understand for someone else for a variety of reasons. Somewhat relevant xkcd.

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    That doesn’t make any sense to me but the calculator says it’s correct… Goddamit I’m going to be thinking about this all day now…

    • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s confusing because it’s dividing by "one over two (a half)" instead of dividing by "two over one".

      Dividing by 2 is the same a cutting something in half.

      Dividing by a half is the same as the inverse of cutting something in half, which is doubling it

    • JoShmoe@ani.social
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      8 months ago

      Maybe you’re interpreting it wrong. With addition and subtraction we can imagine objects increasing and decreasing in quantity.

      However we cannot multiply or divide an object to make more or less of that object. Instead it’s more like creating territories on an object for microbials to fight over.

    • Xero@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      If this doesn’t make sense to you, you’re in desperate need to repeat elementary school

  • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    X ÷ (number bigger than 1) < X, obviously

    X ÷ 1 = X, obviously

    X ÷ (number smaller than 1) > X, somehow confusing?

    How many halves go into a quarter? Half of one.

  • Xero@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    As an Asian, I can’t understand why this keeps you up at night. Didn’t you learn this in like 2nd grade?

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      They didn’t teach why. American mathematics have been a rote learning exercise in classrooms for generations past.