#1-Half a Time Explanation

Hello. My name is Glenn Philips.

Ronald Mack, my friend and classmate, asked me to explain why some whole numbers cannot be split into parts even though we sometimes speak of them that way.

First let me say I very much enjoyed reading the book Ronald wrote.

In that book, Ronald described the monthly poker game attended by his father and Georgie Sinkoff’s father. He wrote:

I think there are eight men who play, but they do it at a different house each time, so they’re only at my house one and a half times each year. (Okay. I know that it’s impossible to be at my house a half of a time. But twelve months divided by eight men does equal 1.5, so…Aha! I just called Glenn Philips. He said I am right, but there’s a better way to say it: They’re only at my house three times every two years.

Yes, it is impossible to be somewhere a half of a time. That’s because some things—like trips to the post office, or home runs, or Vice Presidents of the United States—cannot be split. There is no such thing as “half of a home run” or “half of a Vice President”

Here’s a way to look at the poker game question. Assume that the eight men who play are Messrs. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. They agree to host the game each month at a different man’s home. Mr. A hosts in January…Mr. B in February…Mr. C in March…and so on. Look at the table below. After one year, half of the men (Messrs. A, B, C, and D) would have had two games at their homes, but the other half (Messrs. E, F, G, and H) would each have hosted only once. On average, each man would have hosted 1.5 games per year.

—

Year One
Jan
A
Feb
B
Mar
C
Apr
D
May
E
Jun
F
Jul
G
Aug
H
Sep
A
Oct
B
Nov
C
Dec
D
Year Two
Jan
E
Feb
F
Mar
G
Apr
H
May
A
Jun
B
Jul
C
Aug
D
Sep
E
Oct
F
Nov
G
Dec
H

—

But as I told Ronald, it might be clearer if he said, “Each man hosted three games every two years.” That also averages 1.5 times a year.

I hope this explanation is clear. If you have further questions, please ask them below, and I (Glenn Philips) will answer.

(Cheesie writing now: Glenn is really smart. You can ask him super hard questions!)

Comments from my Readers & Friends

  2. Yeah the half a Vice President is if someone took a sword ⚔️ 🗡 and cut them in half!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • As Cheesie says in his books, everything he writes is true. And since Cheesie writes realistic fiction, everything he writes about me is both realistic and fictional, but also true. For personal privacy reasons (Gloucester is an actual town in Massachusetts), my mother has advised me to be no more specific than that. I hope that helps.

  9. Glenn, solve this.

    SEND+MORE=MONEY

    Each letter is a variable, and different letters are different 1 digit scalars.

    PLEASE don’t look this up on Wikipedia.
    I am in 4th grade and it took me 15
    minutes. What does each letter stand for?

    • 9567 + 1085 = 10652
      Thank you for this puzzle., Here’s how I did it.
      Obviously M=1 because S+M cannot be larger than 18.
      Then, since M=1, O must equal either 1 or zero and S must be 8 or 9.
      Then, since E+O{the letter O}=N, and N and E are different, N must be one or two larger than E.
      The rest was easy. perhaps I’ll let others figure out the remainder of the puzzle.

  10. or you could have just said that if it’s 1.5 a year, then in two years, you would just double it and a .5 + a .5 = 1 so then you add the other 1.’s
    (you have two of them) to equal 3. or you could have just said 1.5+1.5= 3, or 1.5(yearly)* 2(years)= 3. if that made any more sense.

  15. In school I am in the G.T.E.(Gifted and Talented Education) program! (Huge acomplashment and means I am smart).

    • ME too! I’m in gifted math and language arts, which are the only things in my grade that you can be advanced in.

      • I cannot tell how smart you are from this one comment, but it does appear that you know how to divide.