Why does $1/0.5$ equal $2$?

If I say $6/2$, I ask for the number of times that the number $2$ fits into $6$. The answer is $3$, because I can add $2$ three times to get $6$, i.e. $2+2+2=6$. This is the same as saying that $2\cdot 3 = 6$.

So the answer to $6/2$ is the number with the property that when multiplied by $2$ (the denominator), I get $6$ (the numerator).

The same is true for $1/0.5$. The answer is the number with the property that when multiplied by $0.5$ (the denominator), I get $1$ (the numerator). So I need to figure out what number I can multiply by $0.5$ to get $1$. Or how many times $0.5$ fits into $1$.

Since $0.5+0.5=1$, the answer to $1/0.5$ is $2$. Or saying the same thing in a different way, because $0.5\cdot 2 = 1$, the answer to $1/0.5$ is $2$. The number $2$ is the number with the property that when multiplied by the denominator ($0.5$), I get the numerator ($1$).

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Fractions

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