if I cut a sandwich in triangles and eat it

[ICametoLurk]

So, if I cut a sandwich in triangles and eat it, is it correct to say "I have eaten" "a sandwich" or "a pair of sandwiches"?

 

[The Unfinished Swan]

food is food

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

It would be the same sandwich so singular. You don't cut a chicken in half and say "I have chickens". You have two halves of the same sandwich.

 

[Chocolate Wombat]

It would be the same sandwich so singular. You don't cut a chicken in half and say "I have chickens". You have two halves of the same sandwich.

I was going to say the same thing except my example was "cutting your car in half won't give you two cars."

 

[Bloitzhole]

It would be the same sandwich so singular. You don't cut a chicken in half and say "I have chickens". You have two halves of the same sandwich.

I was going to say the same thing except my example was "cutting your car in half won't give you two cars."

I was going to say the same thing, except my example was "cutting your dick in half won't give you two dicks."

 

[BONE_Buddy]

The posters above are correct, you will have one sandwich.

However, if you cut all your ingredients in half *before* you make your sandwich, and assemble the two sets separately, you will have two sandwiches.

 

[The Magnificence]

...you cut your sandwiches? What are you, fucking 12?

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

It doesn't really matter. It's all going to come out the same.

 

[theshitposter]

1. no one is interested to hear what you've done
2. even if someone was, they probably aren't inclined to know the specific quantity
3. you ate 2 servings of sandwich

 

[Dieter Laser]

The only thing correct to say is that you are a fucking sociopath.

 

[I (Don't) Have A Gun]

The sandwich never existed, it is only a conceptualisation a mental model that we use to collectively refer something vaguely like pieces of bread with food stuff in / on it and to help us more easily conceive of the world around us and well as convey complex ideas in a relatively simple way.

So what I'm saying is, it's really a definitional problem. We for example define a duck or a car as having certain traits which which when we cut them in half the half no longer have. But if you take something like butter and you cut that in half we'd still conceive of the two half as having all the attributes that we define the whole as having and so you end up with two pieces of butter.

So to answer your question we first need to establish what we mean by a 'sandwich', this doesn't have to be a perfect definition or a universal definition, but so long as we have a definition we can measure the question in accordance with that definition. If say someone else brings up a different definition then we can just repeat the process according to that definition. At the end of the day there is only our conceptualisation of what a sandwich is and as such it shouldn't be a problem working with subjective or situational definitions.