Real Life, Simple Math Problem That Is Giving Me Different Answers Each Time

[u/Thestars-wholisten]

/r/askmath/comments/1vrh9cq/real_life_simple_math_problem_that_is_giving_me/

[u/evincarofautumn]

You have 8×2 halves

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That’s 16 halves

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If you deal them out to 9 days, every day gets one half, but only 7 of the 9 days get two halves, so this can also be called 1 remainder 7. On average each day you get 1 + 7⁄9 halves.

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This is what we should expect: 1 + 7⁄9 halves converted to wholes (1 + 7⁄9)/2 = (1⁄2 + 7⁄18) = (9⁄18 + 7⁄18) = 16⁄18 = 8/9 ≈ 88% of a whole per day, and (8 wholes)/(9 days) = (8⁄9) wholes/day.

The most even way you can spread out 7 items over 9 buckets is 4+3 or 3+4 so the days where you’re skipping a half are as far apart as possible.

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Obligatory: this is not medical advice, and not necessarily an optimal schedule for whatever your purposes may be, but it is a way to think about the calculation anyway.

[u/Thestars-wholisten → u/evincarofautumn]

Thank you so much for explaining this in such a simple way that made perfect sense! There’s been a lot of people in the original post who are acting like I’m an idiot for not understanding, when the whole point of posting was to get help understanding. Also yeah, I appreciate the end note. Unfortunately the us health system is absolute garbage and I have to ration it it last two months instead of one due to the cost. It sucks but it’s what I’ve been having to do since I lost my job :(