Why are there only 3 MONTHS in a QUARTER YEAR?

[AviatorTom]

2021 Calendar showing Quarters

The word Quarter comes from the Latin "quarta", which means "four". So, shouldn't a Quarter-Year contain 4 months instead of 3?

Come on G@G community. Enlighten us!

Updates

+1 y

Several G@Gers have said that fun questions is one of the things they like on G@G, and that's the type of question this is. A few of you got that. To the others, many thanks for clarifying that 12 divided by 4 is 3. 👍😎🤔

[DaveJord]

Oh, Tom I have seen plenty of your other posts and you seem a lot smarter than this, so you must be baiting people to make themselves look stupid.

12 months in a year... and a quarter is 4 or 1/4... right? 12 divided by 4 = 3 months to a quarter, 4 quarts of 3 month = 12 months to a year.

So why do American Football games have 4 x 15 minute quarters of play when they have 30 minutes of play before halftime and 30 minutes of play after half time?

[AviatorTom]

@DaveJord You got it Dave!

[NathanDavis]

there were four quarters at the last Super Bowl... and that IS why they had 50 Cent at the half-time show...

[NamerOfStars]

Because of the fifteen planets in our solar system, only ONE has higher gravity than Earth. This makes the moon move all the faster, which is why we only have twelve months in our year (well, twelve and change), not sixteen. There are four quarters in the year, not in the quarter.

The REAL question is why September, October, November and December aren't the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth months any more. They were on the old Roman calendar, but when Caesar reformed it and moved New Year's to the solstice (bang up job on that timing, Julius!), he didn't change the month names. This was inaccurate when JESUS was walking around, and in the *two thousand years* since, no one's bothered to fix it. They even had the perfect excuse when they made the Gregorian calendar, but nope! Didn't bother.

For that matter, the word "quarantine" means "forty". It's not a derivation; that's literally the exact meaning. So why exactly did so many Covid policies last so long?

[HighlyVolatile]

I'm confused since your picture even shows the year divided into quarters: 12/4=3. I think I'm too slow to understand the possible joke or pun or whatever is involved in this question.

Oh wait, I get it now! A quarter is a "fourth", not "four", as you very well know!

[HighlyVolatile]

I get it now! Etymology isn't a strong point of mine along with English in general.

[AviatorTom]

@highlyvolatile Yep, you got it!

[MuddyMole]

That actually makes perfect sense - it's one fourth of a year.
There are bigger problems though. For example, why are October and December not the 8th and 10th months?

It's intended as comedy, but I actually think this is genius:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vunESk53r5U

[exitseven]

There are 3 months in a quarter because there are 12 months in a year and 12months/4=3 months. The definition of a quarter is one of 4 equal parts of a whole.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Because the year has 12 month and if you separate it into 4 equal parts there are 4x 3 months, if you got a quarter ($) its 25 cents as 100 cents is a dollar, and if you got a quarter of a pizza you have a 90° part of a circle...

[douride2]

Wouldn't it because there are 4 quarters in a year? 12 months in a years divide by 4 gives you 3 months in a 1/4

[DonkeyDan]

Its a quarter as in a quarter of a year, so that's why it's 3 months.

[purplepoppy]

It's better to think of it as ,"quarter of a year" ie the year split into 4.

[Fireguy17]

12 months in a year divided by 4 quarters, (remember your fractions, 4 quarters equal 1 whole,) equal 3, so 3 months in each quarter.

[FunkyMonkee]

Because it's 1/4 of a year. Or, 1/4 of a dozen. How many 4's go into 12?

[Andres77]

Are you a retired math teacher and you're just bored?
😉

[UniquelyBasic]

3 months is 1/4 of the year. Thats why its a quarter.

[DaisyM23]

because 12 divided by 4 is 3

[kitkills]

Because a quarter of 12 is 3...

[In_Trance]

No, it means 1 of 4... as in 1/4 of the year

[GMANN56]

12 divided by 3 is 4