I, too, am confused by the question. Is the question referring to the effects of the pills (like, how long will the pills medication last once ingested) or how long will it take to take the pills? If the first is true, one cannot answer given we do not know what type of pills they are and do not know how long the medicine stays in the system. On the other hand, the answers would be one hour if every half hour and two hours if every hour.

I think these must be three different kinds of pills.  I do not know of any pill you take every hour (or every half hour).  There might be a reason you are not taking them together.  For example, you might need to let one digest before you take the others.  So there is no way to know how long each one will last in this scenario.

If taken one every hour, as the initial question asks, then 2 hours--one, say, at noon, the second at 1 pm and the third at 2 PM.

If every half hour, as the second part implies, then one hour--noon, 12:30, and 1 PM.

This question is a bit confusing because the question in bold has the doctor telling you to take one every hour and the second question says every half hour.  Which is it? A doctor with bad communication skills like that would confuse his patients and get himself taken to malpractice court. Plus, who takes a pill every half hour or hour anyway? I guess it wouldn't hurt if they are gummy vitamins, in which case they wouldn't really be pills. But vitamins wouldn't hurt you all that much if you just took three in a three hour period, but even then, you shouldn't play with any type of drugs. :)

First, we have to assume that you take them as you are supposed to.  If you do that, they will last for one hour.  Let's say the doctor tells you this at 1 PM.  You take the first one then.  At 1:30, you take the second.  At 2:00 you take the third.  In one hour you have taken all 3 pills.