# If a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many hens to lay six eggs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-chicken-and-a-half-can-lay-an-egg-and-a-half-in-a-day-and-a-half-how-many-hens-to-lay-six-eggs/652918>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 14, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-chicken-and-a-half-can-lay-an-egg-and-a-half-in-a-day-and-a-half-how-many-hens-to-lay-six-eggs/652918 "2013-03-14T14:40:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-chicken-and-a-half-can-lay-an-egg-and-a-half-in-a-day-and-a-half-how-many-hens-to-lay-six-eggs/652918/21 "2013-03-22T02:40:06Z")

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Yo, **fatboy** , where you been, man?! Come on in, grab a cold one!

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-chicken-and-a-half-can-lay-an-egg-and-a-half-in-a-day-and-a-half-how-many-hens-to-lay-six-eggs/652918/22 "2013-03-22T03:08:33Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> A half a chicken can lay half an egg, no problem. It just has to be attached to another half-chicken, which simultaneously lays the other half of the egg.

You mean like [this guy](http://www.google.com/search?q=half+homonculus&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=CslLUdHlFJOo4APY44C4DQ&biw=1024&bih=644&sei=D8lLUdWrILXe4APzzoH4AQ#biv=i%7C3%3Bd%7CaHPxJthcvDP8OM%3A) (if he were a chicken, of course)?

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**Author:** ![kneegrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kneegrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kneegrow)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-chicken-and-a-half-can-lay-an-egg-and-a-half-in-a-day-and-a-half-how-many-hens-to-lay-six-eggs/652918/23 "2013-03-23T02:55:15Z")

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> [@Irishman](#):
>
> The essence of the problem: someone sees all the one and a halfs and decides they all cancel out, ergo they think 1 hen lays 1 egg in 1 day.
> 
> The heart of the problem as a math problem is that you can’t just cancel all the halfs simultaneously.
> 
> Of course there is the distraction of how a half a hen lays anything, etc.

yes.  
And the column fumbled the original question which was:

If a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs get laid in nine days?

Irishman is correct that this question confuses you in at least two ways: the mathematical and the impossibility of half a chicken doing anything, let alone laying an egg. Or a half an egg.

The boring version would be: If one and a half factory can produce one and a half ton of bricks in a day and a half, how many tons get made in nine days?

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