Editing Division by two (section)

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[[File:Orange_sliced_in_half.jpg | thumb | right | alt=An orange on a white plate that has been divided in half.  | An orange that has been sliced into two halves. ]]
In [[mathematics]], '''division by [[two]]''' or '''halving''' has also been called '''mediation''' or '''dimidiation'''.<ref>{{citation|title=The Earliest arithmetics in English|volume=118|series=Early English Text Society|first=Robert|last=Steele|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1922|page=82}}.</ref> The treatment of this as a different operation from multiplication and division by other numbers goes back to the ancient Egyptians, whose [[Ancient Egyptian multiplication|multiplication algorithm]] used division by two as one of its fundamental steps.<ref>{{citation|title=A history of algorithms: from the pebble to the microchip|first1=Jean-Luc|last1=Chabert|first2=Évelyne|last2=Barbin|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=1999|isbn=978-3-540-63369-3|page=16}}.</ref>
Some mathematicians as late as the sixteenth century continued to view halving as a separate operation,<ref>{{citation|title=The educational significance of sixteenth century arithmetic from the point of view of the present time|volume=8|series=Contributions to education|first=Lambert Lincoln|last=Jackson|publisher=Columbia University|year=1906|page=76}}.</ref><ref>{{citation|title=A Fifteenth Century French Algorism from Liége|journal=Isis|volume=12|issue=2|year=1929|first=E. G. R.|last=Waters|pages=194–236|jstor=224785|doi=10.1086/346408|s2cid=144157808}}.</ref> and it often continues to be treated separately in modern [[computer programming]].<ref name="WC00">{{citation|title=Software optimization for high-performance computing|first1=Kevin R.|last1=Wadleigh|first2=Isom L.|last2=Crawford|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=2000|page=[https://archive.org/details/softwareoptimiza0000wadl/page/92 92]|isbn=978-0-13-017008-8|url=https://archive.org/details/softwareoptimiza0000wadl/page/92}}.</ref>
Performing this operation is simple in [[decimal arithmetic]], in the [[binary numeral system]] used in computer programming, and in other even-numbered [[numeral system|base]]s. To [[Division (mathematics)|divide]] an [[odd number]] by [[2]] use the [[mathematical solution]] ((N−1)÷2)+0.5. For example, if N=7, then ((7−1)÷2)+0.5=3.5, so 7÷2=3.5.