I wrote in USMA 18175 >2001-09-09 > >It seems from the link Nat provided, this guy's main beef is with using the >word "times" when used describe something "less than". > >http://www.uexpress.com/coveringthecourts/ > >I'm sorry, but I have no trouble understanding that when something is 5 >times less than something else, that means the same thing as 0.2 or 20 %. >If he and others have trouble, that is their problem. The one part that may >be confusing to some is: .....Columnist Molly Ivins cites a congressional >finding that Mexicans pay "102 percent less" than Americans pay for >prescription drugs. How do they do that?..... Well, 102 % less, is the same >as 1.02 times less. or 98 %, which really isn't that much less. > >......Even a literate ignoramus can understand a plastic railway car that >weighs half as much as a conventional steel car. It is the railway car that >is "230 percent lighter" that baffles us. If we are to believe a reduction >of 150 percent in teen-age pregnancies, how many teen-age pregnancies do we >have? Fifty percent fewer than zero? Bad news for obstetricians........... > >Why is he baffled? 230 % lighter means 2.3 times lighter or 0.43 (43 %) of >the weight. A reduction of 150 %, means it is reduced by 1.5 times or 0.67 >or 67 % of a former count. I beg to differ. If something is 20 % of something else, then it is 80 % less. If something is 98 % of something else, then it is 2 % less. If something is 67 % of something else, then it is 33 % less. There seems to be something wrong with American education in arithmetic. When I was in Unesco in 1948 I led a staff revolt when the American accountants in the administration tried to pay us 20 % more when the value of the French franc dropped 20%. We demanded 25 % more francs. Joseph B. Reid I asm having a bad night. On further study I agree with Kilopascal's explanation of how these crazy percentages were arrived at. I still say that American education in arithmetic must be very poor. Joseph B. Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
