# Half a sandwich



## forty_caliber (May 5, 2012)

Posting an old family argument discussion for public review in hope that we can put the matter to a final conclusion.  

The basis of the argument is this:



It is *IMPOSSIBLE* to make half of a sandwich.
It is possible to make a sandwich and cut it in half resulting in two halves.
It is possible to make a sandwich from one slice of bread that is the same size as the previously mentioned halves but it is still a whole sandwich.
In either case a whole sandwich was brought into physical existence.  One of the sandwiches is comparatively smaller in size.  

A half of something results when it is divided in some manner.

What do you think?

.40


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## buckytom (May 5, 2012)

this is along the lines of one of zeno's paradoxe you know, like the one where if every step you took got you halfway to your goal, you'd never get there, in theory.

it's interesting, but impractical in real terms. you eventually get into negligible terms.

in the end, the person with the ruler that has smaller demarcations wins.

lol, i love the philosophy of physics.  mc escher's drawings, bach's canons, and so on.


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## PrincessFiona60 (May 5, 2012)

If I normally make a sandwich with 2 slices of bread, 3 ounces of meat, 1 ounce of cheese, 2 Tbs Mayo and 2 tsp mustard, and on my next effort I use half of everything...to my satisfaction, I have made a half sandwich.


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## forty_caliber (May 5, 2012)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> If I normally make a sandwich with 2 slices of bread, 3 ounces of meat, 1 ounce of cheese, 2 Tbs Mayo and 2 tsp mustard, and on my next effort I use half of everything...to my satisfaction, I have made a half sandwich.



No.  That's what Mrs. 40 C keeps saying.  You made a whole sandwich that's just smaller than normal.

.40


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## PrincessFiona60 (May 5, 2012)

forty_caliber said:


> No.  That's what Mrs. 40 C keeps saying.  You made a whole sandwich that's just smaller than normal.
> 
> .40



Then Mrs. 40 C is a real smart lady!

Do you agree that the "half" sandwich is HALF the calories and mass of the first sandwich?


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## forty_caliber (May 5, 2012)

Yes of course.  That is precisely why she keeps losing the argument.

It is half the mass of another object.  But you can't say I made half a sandwich unless you made a bigger one and then cut it in half.  You could say I made a small sandwich.

.40


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (May 5, 2012)

If you take a WHOLE slice of bread, cut it in HALF, for argument's sake let's say diagonally from corner to corner, add sandwich ingredients to one half and cover them with the second half, you have made half a sandwich.


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## PrincessFiona60 (May 5, 2012)

forty_caliber said:


> Yes of course.  That is precisely why she keeps losing the argument.
> 
> It is half the mass of another object.  But you can't say I made half a sandwich unless you made a bigger one and then cut it in half.  You could say I made a small sandwich.
> 
> .40



The other half of that sandwich is still in it's component parts in the packaging...


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## forty_caliber (May 5, 2012)

Sir_Loin_of_Beef said:


> If you take a WHOLE slice of bread, cut it in HALF, for argument's sake let's say diagonally from corner to corner, add sandwich ingredients to one half and cover them with the second half, you have made half a sandwich.



Yes I agree except that you made two halves.  Not a half.  My point exactly.


.40


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (May 5, 2012)

No, if I made a sandwich with TWO slices of bread and sandwich ingredients and cut it in half diagonally corner to corner, THEN I would have made two halves. I took ONE SLICE of bread and made a sandwich with it, making it half a sandwich.


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## buckytom (May 5, 2012)

once again,  the guy with the ruler that has smaller demarcations wins.

.40, you're arguing that you can only have half if a whole is divided. fee and slob are starting at a whole and only producing a single half in quantity from a predisposed pov.

it's simply sementics. sheesh. 

can you serve a medium if the only choices are medium and large? same arguement.


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## PrincessFiona60 (May 5, 2012)

.40, would you only be half as hungry if you only had 'my' half sandwich?  And I'm not counting the bag of chips you have hidden in your desk.


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## Andy M. (May 5, 2012)

I gather all the ingredients to make a sandwich.  If I assemble those ingredients appropriately, I have a sandwich.

If I use precisely half of each ingredients and assemble them in the same manner I have half of the original sandwich.  The other half is on the counter in pieces.

I reject your argument that I've just made a smaller sandwich so I win.


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## Zhizara (May 5, 2012)

It sounds like you're half a sandwich short of a picnic, Andy.


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## Andy M. (May 5, 2012)

Zhizara said:


> It sounds like you're half a sandwich short of a picnic, Andy.



I guess I'll just go out on the back deck and eat half a sandwich.


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## Greg Who Cooks (May 5, 2012)

forty_caliber said:


> Posting an old family argument discussion for public review in hope that we can put the matter to a final conclusion.
> 
> The basis of the argument is this:
> 
> ...


I think you should either cut down or at least not post when thus consuming.


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## Katie H (May 5, 2012)

It is obvious ALL you crazy people have waaaaaaay too much time on your hands.


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## buckytom (May 5, 2012)

lol, ok, i'm doing so well here that i'll take another tack. psycology and physics.

yes, you can have a half of a sandwich so long as there's a reference. 

if you know in your heart what a whole is when starting out, you only need to do half as much.


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## PrincessFiona60 (May 5, 2012)

Katie H said:


> It is obvious ALL you crazy people have waaaaaaay too much time on your hands.



But it's so much fun...
Besides, .40 is only half-baked...it's true ask Mrs .40.


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## taxlady (May 5, 2012)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> If I normally make a sandwich with 2 slices of bread, 3 ounces of meat, 1 ounce of cheese, 2 Tbs Mayo and 2 tsp mustard, and on my next effort I use half of everything...to my satisfaction, I have made a half sandwich.


I agree.


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## Greg Who Cooks (May 5, 2012)

Not being the devil's advocate or anything  but if you dug a hole and you buried a bag of garbage in it, could you bury half a bag of garbage in half a hole? How would you dig half a hole? With half a shovel? And if you dig holes fast, would it be twice as fast to dig half a hole? Or would it be half fast? Would half a hole be half as deep, half as wide or half as big? And what if you dug a hole twice as big? Would it then be two holes? What if you dug a whole hole, and then you dug it deeper or wider or bigger? Would it be anything different than the hole you started with? (I mean, in terms of holeness.)

So by the same logic if you can take two pieces of bread and some filling and make one sandwich, or take two half pieces of bread and some filling and what you make is still one sandwich, then you should be able to take a whole loaf of bread and some filling and what you make is still a sandwich, right?

Maybe we need a new word for sandwich: perhaps sandwichii or sandwicheaux.

For example, if you have some water and you double it, you still have some water. You don't have two waters. Nobody has half a trousers. Have you ever seen a plier? Or a scissor? (While we're on this subject, if the plural of mouse is mice, what's  the plural of mice? And if two mouses are mice, then why aren't two mooses  meese?) To complicate things further, if you order a computer mouse and then decide to double your order, it's two computer mouses, not two computer mice. I'm glad there's no such thing as a computer goose. We'd have a literary crisis wondering what to call more than one of them.

After thinking it over I've decided that 40 is right. Not about making a sandwich though. I think he's spotted a basic flaw in the English language: we've misnamed the common sandwich!

So seeyalaterbye I'm gonna go make myself a sandwichii.  Or maybe half a sandwichii...


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## Zhizara (May 6, 2012)

So what would you call it if you have it open faced, on one slice of bread?


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## forty_caliber (May 6, 2012)

Zhizara said:


> So what would you call it if you have it open faced, on one slice of bread?



A whole open faced sandwich.  Unless you cut it in half.  Then you would have two half-open-faced sandwiches.

.4-


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## justplainbill (May 6, 2012)

For me 1 meat sandwich contains 1/4 pound of meat on 6 ounces of bread and 1/2 sandwich contains  1/8 pound of meat on 3 ounces of bread.
Problem is, I too often eat 2 sandwiches for brunch.


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## Margi Cintrano (May 6, 2012)

Good Afternoon,

Interesting question. 

If a person takes 1 slice of bread ( not 2 slices of bread ) and slices it into two parts, they have a half of a sandwich !  At least according to my maths.

Have nice Sunday.
M.C.


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## PrincessFiona60 (May 6, 2012)

forty_caliber said:


> A whole open faced sandwich.  Unless you cut it in half.  Then you would have two half-open-faced sandwiches.
> 
> .4-



.20, I agree, an open faced sandwich would be a whole sandwich.  But, I could have a half if I only used HALF the ingredients.


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (May 6, 2012)

buckytom said:


> can you serve a medium if the only choices are medium and large? same arguement.


 
That actually happened to me once. I was in some linoleum cafe and asked for a small beverage. The clerk said "we don't have small, only medium and large."


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## taxlady (May 6, 2012)

forty_caliber said:


> A whole open faced sandwich.  Unless you cut it in half.  Then you would have two half-open-faced sandwiches.
> 
> .4-


+1


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## taxlady (May 6, 2012)

In Denmark a sandwich is usually half a slice of heavy rye plus butter or lard and a cold cut and garnishes.


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## Matts girl (May 6, 2012)

I am extremely new here, but this convo has had me rolling since last night! It is honestly hilarious, but at the same time gets ya thinking! My thought, you can't have half of anything without first having a whole! In my case, I would never want just half of anything edible! lol!


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## Andy M. (May 6, 2012)

Contrary to statements above you can have half of something without halving something first.  

Wait, 30 minutes from now, you'll have waited a half hour.


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## Matts girl (May 6, 2012)

Andy M. said:


> Contrary to statements above you can have half of something without halving something first.
> 
> Wait, 30 minutes from now, you'll have waited a half hour.


 True that, but you can't make, touch or eat time! The question I believe was can you "make" half...


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## LPBeier (May 6, 2012)

I have to get my 2 cents (or half of that would be 1 cent) in here! 

I make two sandwiches every day which each contain two slices of bread, condiments and a good-sized stack of meat, veggies or PB&J.  I slice each sandwich in half down the middle.  Then I pack one full sandwich and 1/2 of the other sandwich into a bag for DH to take for his work break and wrap the other half on a plate for me to eat later.  

So you could say he takes three half sandwiches, or one and a half sandwiches, but he doesn't take three sandwiches....at least not in my thinking.  I have a half sandwich because that is all I can eat (with raw veggies or fruit).

Oh, and when I was apprenticing in the catering/cafe, I worked the sandwich station.  One sandwich = two slices of bread with filling, and we always cut them in half and packaged them together.  We sold half sandwiches, which meant we would take that sandwich and package the two pieces separately!

This is the kind of fun thread we need here.


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## Greg Who Cooks (May 6, 2012)

If you and a friend go to a restaurant, order a sandwich and split it, then each of you are having a half a sandwich.


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## Zhizara (May 6, 2012)

forty_caliber said:


> A whole open faced sandwich.  Unless you cut it in half.  Then you would have two half-open-faced sandwiches.
> 
> .4-



I agree, I would too.  

However, if I were to cut the bread in half and then assemble a sandwich, I'd be more likely to say I'd made a half sandwich.  Maybe just to emphasize how I was being so good by eating less.

Maybe it's just that once the bread is cut in half, you can't tell there isn't another half, ergo you've made what looks like a half a sandwich and that's what you call it.


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