When is a half not a equal half

[vortex003]

In a lot of cases the bolt is heavier and bigger than the nut that goes on to it..

Correct,they are two corresponding 'halves',not equal halves - and a case of a 'half' not being an equal half.You can't use this logic to seperate a single object into two parts and call them halves,unless they are equal halves.I wouldn't like to be in a Lottery syndicate who followed that train of thought - "hey, we just won 20 million last night - here's your pound, the other 'half' is mine" :-)

[jakdaw]

One more time, anytime when half is used and the object isnt divided exactly by two it is an improper use of the word and you should be using the word parts. Something divided into two parts is not always in two halves. Just because there is a corruption, of the use of a term, does not mean this then becomes a correct use or more worringly in the OPs case replaces the original meaning.

[ZZ330]

Many years ago at school I used to serve the school dinners (aged about 9 or 10)... I was serving the pudding and asked the teacher at the table if she wanted "the big half or the little half" as I had cut the pudding into two unequal parts. I then got a lecture on what a half was and that there was "no such thing as a big half and a little half". Funny how you remember those little incidences!

ZZ

[vortex003]

One more time, anytime when half is used and the object isnt divided exactly by two it is an improper use of the word and you should be using the word parts. Something divided into two parts is not always in two halves. Just because there is a corruption, of the use of a term, does not mean this then becomes a correct use or more worringly in the OPs case replaces the original meaning.