I'll begin my question with an example.
Let's take an apple. Basically if we multiply the apple with some number, lets assume in our case, the multiplier is $2$. So if we multiply the apple by $2$ then we'll have $2$ apples right? Mathematically, $1\times 2$ is nothing but $1 + 1$, i.e. adding $1$ two times or adding $2$ one time. I'm clear right?
But my question is, when we multiply $2 \times 0. 5$ then our answer is $1$. If we compare this to our apple example, then we can say $0.5$ apple is added $2$ times so we get one apple.
But I know it's possible to say $2$ apples are added $0.5$ times to get one apple? This statement is really hard for me to understand. How $2$ full apples can be added $0.5$ times . If we add something then it only has to increase right?
In our case the $2$ apples get reduced to one. I know we can say that $0.5$ apple is added $2$ times. But I only want to get the intuition of how $2$ apples when added $0.5$ times get to $1$ apple.
I know this question sounds crazy because it'll be really helpful to explain to me like a child with different examples and my example to in both ways like if $1\times 2$ and also $2\times 1$ intuitively with an example.
When I was younger, people considered the "average American family" to have "two and a half kids". This engendered quite a lot of jokes about half-kids. I remember a Farside cartoon where a man introduces his kids, two of which where normal, but the other had no left side.
The thing is, just because a bit of mathematics is completely valid in one situation does not mean it is equally applicable in every situation.
Many things you can count, you can also divide into portions. This generally includes physical objects such as apples or (deplorably) kids. But there are many other countable things that, by their nature, are indivisible. You cannot have half an electron, you cannot be half pregnant, in computing, there is no such thing as half a bit. And there are many, many actions that cannot be performed half a time. Just because the concept of "half" is applicable to apples does not make it applicable to everything.
It makes sense to say an "average family has $2.5$ kids", but it does not make sense to say some particular family has $2.5$ kids.
It makes sense to say that a rectangle of width $2$ and height $0.5$ has the same area as a rectangle of width $0.5$ and height $2$, so $2\times 0.5 = 0.5 \times 2$. It makes sense to add half an apple two times gives 1 apple. It does not make sense to add $2$ apples $\frac 12$ times. Nor is there any reason you should expect it would.