Amateur Electronics question

[Jon Darby]

Howdy!
   I officially became fed up of not knowing EXACTLY how all the little
electronic projects I've built work and deceided to educate myself on
electronic theory. I have a seriously juvenile resistance question, so I
figured since everyone on the list must have had a baby-steps phase in their
education I would ask and not worry too much about being humiliated. Here is
the formula my book gives for finding total resistance with two resistors
wired in parallel:

Rtotal=1/R1 * 1/R2

Assuming this is the correct formula, shouldn't two resistors with a value
of 1 each equal a total resistance of 1? The answer the book gave was .5,
where am I missing the logic? Grrrr! Day two and I'm already stumped. Thanks
a pantload for any help!

Your pal,
Jon