When you put together 8 copies of the unit fraction 1/2, you are essentially adding 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2.
To add fractions, you need to make sure the denominators are the same. In this case, all the fractions already have the same denominator of 2.
So, we can add the numerators together:
1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 = 8/2
Now, we can simplify this fraction by dividing both the numerator and denominator by their greatest common factor, which is 2:
8/2 = 4
Therefore, putting together 8 copies of the unit fraction 1/2 gives us a fraction of 4/1, or simply 4.