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

[Leo_Bloom]

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

[Leo_Bloom]

@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 (if he were a chicken, of course)?

[kneegrow]

@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?