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Are fractions really that hard and terrifying?
Because I am sick of reading, "20 times less" when they mean 1/20th.
This is easy math. Try it at home.
20 x 1 = 20. Is 20 more or less than 1?
20 x 20 = 400. Is 400 more or less than 20?
When you multiply it's always MORE not less.
Even if you use smaller numbers.
20 x 0.001 = 0.02. 0.02 is more than 0.001.
It's high time we made journalists take some fucking math classes.
A jolt of English would be good too. Long ago, a cheap tool set came with a fractional vernier caliper. ???
ReplyDeleteIt has always been a problem. When A&W brought out a 1/3 pound burger it did worse than the quarter pounder because 4 is bigger than 3.
ReplyDeleteI know - it was a pathetic example of the ignorance of The Great Unwashed Masses !!
DeleteHow about "it's high time we made people who design boxes take some fucking match classes?" I buy a 2 ounce bottle of almond extract to make ice cream with and it's emblazoned "twice as much as our 1 ounce bottle!" Does anybody really need that? Or maybe we have requirements for numeracy as well as literacy for the entire population? Well, I guess the reading scores in just about all big cities show that's hopeless.
ReplyDeleteMy teeth grind involuntarily whenever they tell you about "a million and a half dollars", and cannot fathom how $1,000,000.50 is not the same thing as $1,500,000.00
ReplyDeleteMy impression when I was in college was that journalism majors were not, to put it bluntly, the intellectual elite.
ReplyDeleteThey were the ones not bright enough to get into the STEM majors, not talented in either a creative or technical sense to go into Radio/TV/Film, and not literate enough to be English majors.
DeleteThe totem pole below that point is things like Xxxxxxxxx Studies, followed by Physical Education.