Here's The Thing I Got A Problem With!*

 


I watched that dude on the History Channel.  (Might have been Discovery)

Ah, just wait.  You'll be there soon Brotha*.



*Speakin' of which, where Seamus be at and *feces*?  (Again)

I thought aske's explanation was spot on.  That's one way to remember.  Another is .5 x .5 = .25

But the easiest *goshdarn* way is to just multiply the stupid fraction.

1     1        (what the *fudge* is 1*1?  1 duh)  1
-  x  -    =                                             -   
2     2        (what's 2*2, *goshdarn* 4 moron)  4

That's your answer same way 1/2 / 1/2 becomes 1/2 * 2/1 and = 2

In your pizza scenario you have half a zaa with 6 slices.  Multiply it a half of a pizza by another half.  6/12 * 6/12  =  1/4  Math isn't jesus so halfing a half makes a quarter.  Jebus.

1/2 actually means "1 divided by 2".

Even though it's treated as a single number in your problem, it's really an operation of two numbers. Therefore, the original problem:

1/2 x 1/2  (half times half)

Is actually:

1 / 2 x 1 / 2   (1 divided by 2 times 1 divided by 2)

Which can be reorganized as:

1 x 1 / 2 / 2  (1 times 1 divided by 2 divided by 2)

Try it with this:

3/4 x 3/4

Sure. If you multiply something by 3 and then divide by 4, you get a smaller number than what you started with.

OK I was in the just do it this way mode and you'll figure out why later.  That's how I was taught.  But gleek's explanation is much better as to the why.

simplest explanation yet

I'm not jesting.

I've long held that if Aske were to only speak in calculations and equations, he'd be far more understandable.  See my collected works, now available on amazon.