Think about it

MakunaHatata@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 210 points –
34

This is just 1*2=2 with extra steps

Nobody tell Terrance Howard.

Terryology has got to be one of the most nonsensical and unhinged pointless maths theories I've ever read.

At times I just thought he did not believe in anything beyond the integers, which would be insane enough. But it is so much worse.

4/2=2, upside down.

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

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.

Are you going to eat that last slice?

You can have it, but then everyone has to scale the other two slices by 1/0.75 since they now make up 100% of the pizza.

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...

Divide with a decimal to multiply. This is equivalent to multiplying 0.25 by 2.

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

Ah yeah, thats where I was mentally fucking it up. Thanks.

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.

0.25 / 0.50 = (0.25 * 4) / (0.50 * 4) = 1 / 2 = 0.50

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

0.25/0.5

(1/4)/(1/2)

(1/4)*(2/1)

2/4

1/2

There ya go.

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.

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

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