Question

What is a counterexample to this claim?

Dividing a number by two always results in a smaller number.
A. the number is 8
B. the number is 5.
C. the number is 2
D. the number is 1.
E. the number is -1​

Answer 1

E. the number is -1

Explanation:

We can go through all of these to see whether or not dividing by 2 results in a smaller number, then select the option that results in a larger number.

First, we'll look at A. 8 ÷ 2 = 4, which is smaller than 8, so this can't be the answer. Next, B. 5 ÷ 2 = 2.5, which is smaller than 5. We'll next look at C. 2 ÷ 2 = 1, and 1 is smaller than 2.

Alright, moving on to D. 1 ÷ 2 is 1/2 or 0.5, which is smaller than 1, and finally we'll take a look at E. -1 ÷ 2 = -1/2 or -0.5, which is indeed greater than -1, so we can deduce that this is the answer.

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