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Think about it (lemmy.world)
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[-] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 61 points 2 years ago

0.5 / 0.5 = 1, so reducing the top term by half (from 0.5 to 0.25) reduces the result by the same (from 1 to 0.5), makes perfect sense to me. Or, ya know, just remember that dividing by 0.5 is the same as multiplying by 2.

[-] AceSLS@ani.social 14 points 2 years ago

Or even simpler the half of 0.5 fits into 0.25. And we all know a half is 0.5

[-] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

I was trying to think how to put that into words with an example like, "how many halves fit in 10? It's 20. So how many halves fit in a quarter? Only half of a half will fit, so 0.5" but I kept screwing up the wording in my head for halves and quarters until I read your reply, so thank you for helping with that clarification. I knew the math was right but couldn't put it into words the way I wanted.

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

0.5 / 0.5 = 1

Fuck you, that's even worse!

[-] cholesterol@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

x / x = 1

really shouldn't make anyone upset

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

It is the same as 1*x = x

I give you x, once. How many do you have?

[-] blujan@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
[-] WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Then X can start tending to hell

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 3 points 2 years ago

Dividing any number, except 0, by itself equal 1, so the first part of your argument makes no sense.

[-] MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years ago

Incorrect. The argument makes perfect sense, you just gave a reason for why the example's initial point seems obvious. Proofs don't need to be fancy or make novel arguments to be effective. It's math, where the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

[-] qarbone@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Is this a real stance you're taking or are you just trolling? Explain yourself.

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[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 43 points 2 years ago

If you move it around it makes more sense.

.25 = 0.5*0.5

If you take half of something only half of the time you take a quarter of something.

[-] DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works 29 points 2 years ago
[-] Leviathan@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

Maybe someone better at math can answer this, but is 0.25/0.5 functionally the same as 0.5/1, or simply 0.5?

[-] doctordevice@lemm.ee 17 points 2 years ago

You can call it whatever you want, as long as it equals 1/2 it's the same number.

So yes, multiplying by 2/2 to make it more intuitively obvious is perfectly valid and a good way to think about it. Most arithmetic tricks are ultimately multiplying by 1 or adding 0 just to make the problem easier to handle.

[-] Leviathan@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Oh yeah, I just meant that they said I multiplied by 2, which in my head is 2/1 but I was multiplying by 1. Just trying to be clear.

[-] spicytuna62@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I think it's easier to picture it in terms of fractions. When you divide by a fraction, you reciprocate the divisor. That is, you flip its numerator and denominator, then multiply them. In this case, we're taking 1/4 and dividing it by 1/2. You take the reciprocal of 1/2, which is 2/1. Then multiply the numerators and denominators. You end up with (1/4)*(2/1)=2/4=1/2=0.5

[-] fellstone 3 points 2 years ago

0.25 is half of 0.5. Alternatively: A quarter is half of half. If you multiplied 0.25/0.5 by 2, then it would be 0.5/1, which is just 0.5.

[-] Leviathan@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Didn't I multiple it by 2/2 which is the same as 1? Like isn't 2/8 the same as 1/4?

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[-] SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 years ago

Dividing by a division of 2... Of course it's going to cancel out. Like subtracting a negative.

Surely you don't not understand double negatives? Just think of it like that.

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 13 points 2 years ago

Dividing by 0.5 is the same as multiplying by 2. Simple

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago

0.25 / 0.5 = 0.25 * 2 = 0.5

[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 years ago

Everything I see memes like this I think:

“Do other people just not get basic math?”

[-] vampire@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Every time I see something like this, the comments remind me that common core mathematics is a thing and it makes me sad.

[-] doctordevice@lemm.ee 13 points 2 years ago

Seriously, why is basic arithmetic worthy of so much discussion?

Just... do the math. It's not complicated math.

[-] vampire@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

I sometimes feel bad about myself cause I didn't get very far into calculus, but then I remember that the average adult has no idea how fractions work.

[-] recapitated@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
  • 250 marbles / 500 kids = 0.5 marble per kid
  • 25 marbles / 50 kids = 0.5 marble per kid
  • 2.5 marbles / 5 kids = 0.5 marble per kid
  • 0.25 marbles / 0.5 kids = 0.5 marble per kid, but there's only one half a kid with a quarter of a marble in this example.
[-] TxzK@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

0.5 = 1/2, 0.25 = 1/4

0.25 / 0.5 = (1/4) / (1/2) = 1/4 * 2/1 = 2/4 = 1/2 = 0.5

[-] MacedWindow@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

A quarter of a half is a half

Edit: its a joke comment guys

[-] The_Cleanup_Batter@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

More accurately a quarter of a whole is a half of a half of a whole

[-] bratosch@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

Morer accurately, a quarter of a whole is half of a whole half which is half of a whole

[-] krigo666@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

'A quarter of a half' would be 0.5x0.25 (0.5x1/4 = 0.5/4) and it's not a half. The equation shown is 'a quarter divided by a half'.

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

You can't even buy boots with a quarter

[-] underwire212@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

People don’t understand sarcasm lol

[-] maquise@ttrpg.network 6 points 2 years ago

I understand this mathematically, but can somebody explain it logically?

[-] Amaltheamannen@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years ago

0.25 is half of 0.5

[-] MakunaHatata@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Multiplying by 0.5 halves. Dividing would double the number. 0.25 doubled is 0.5.

Sleep well!

[-] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

y/x = x with y = x*x because 0.25 is 0.5 squared.

from the "wow factor" it's the same as writing: 9/3 = 3 - not very wow at all

[-] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Start with the reverse. If you had half a pizza and you wanted to divide it by quarters of a pizza, you'd be able to do it 4 times (there are four quarter slices in a half pizza).

But with this we're asking how many half-pizza slices are in a quarter-pizza slice. The answer is that there's half of one (half of a half is a quarter).

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[-] Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

In case people would like it demonstrated,

0.25/0.5

= 1/4 ÷ 1/2

= 2/4 ÷ 2/2

= 1/2 ÷ 1

A÷1 = A, therefore 0.25/0.5 = 0.5

Alternatively, (a/b)/(c/d) = (a×d)/(b×c)

1/4 ÷ 1/2 = 1×2 ÷ 4×1 = 2/4 = 1/2

[-] Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

And before any pedants crawl out of the woodwork, there are a load of implied brackets, at the spaces.

[-] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 4 points 2 years ago
[-] brunogron@feddit.nu 14 points 2 years ago

For that to be true it would have to say 0.25 / 2.

[-] drengbarazi@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

same as x * .5 = .25 if that somehow helps ya

I suspect people might be getting confused by this because of colloquialisms like "divided in half", "divided in the middle", "divided by two"

things is, math doesn't care about idioms

another area in mathematics that I've seen ppl (myself included lmao) suffer from this is propositional logic. like with the non exclusive nature of the OR operator

but this is all just a wild guess

[-] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 4 points 2 years ago

I definitely struggle with any math that I can't visualize in a physical way.

[-] jimmux@programming.dev 2 points 2 years ago

Sometimes it clicks if you graph it out with the confusing values on axes.

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this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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