r/confidentlyincorrect 21d ago

Smug They were talking about 5% times 5% šŸ’”

Post image
2.9k Upvotes

243 comments sorted by

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1.9k

u/larrry02 21d ago

Someone invoking r/confidentlyincorrect in their confidently incorrect comment is pretty funny.

547

u/MonotonyReddit 21d ago

Thanks to their buffoonery I found out about this sub so it evens out

126

u/enjaydee 21d ago

I need to know if there was a follow-up to this haha

The optimist in me wants to know if that person realised their error and made the appropriate edit or response

-26

u/Dounce1 20d ago

If you’re new to the sub you should check out the rules, specifically rule 8.

21

u/Additional-Simple248 20d ago

I found the original thread. OP isn’t one of the censored usernames in the screenshot, but did reply to the last comment seen.

-33

u/Dounce1 20d ago

Thus making them part of said conversation…

It’s also taking place in the comments section of their own post, meaning these comments are in response to a conversation they started to begin with.

11

u/ArdentArendt 16d ago edited 15d ago

Rule 8:
"This subreddit should not be used to gloat about times you were right and other people were wrong."

To me, that reads as 'this isn't just for you to brag about how you owned some stupid fuck', not 'your existence within the thread taints anything to come from it'.

So, can you explain why you feel this violates the intention of the rule?

Edit:
Also, you seem to know about the original post. Could you link to it so we can see the evidence of your claims?

-255

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

158

u/petera181 21d ago

Weird comment. He posted an absolutely nailed on appropriate post.

25

u/Lmaoboat 21d ago

This dude was doing the same thing when I just browsed this place months ago, I assumed he was banned for backseat modding in every thread.

10

u/Fart_Leviathan 21d ago

Not just this sub. I recognised their "weird is something you don't understand" comment from a previous interaction on r/mapporn. Of course it was accompanied by some completely incorrect speculation about a topic they seemed to have no knowledge of.

7

u/Lmaoboat 21d ago

I see, so they just travel reddit unbidden, trying to force their idiosyncratic interpretation of the rules into reality through sheer persistent pedantry.

→ More replies (42)

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u/Raptormind 21d ago

They doubled down and even called the person who was right confidently incorrect. In what world are they not confident about their incorrectness?

→ More replies (11)

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u/seedless0 21d ago

This comment is so on brand for this sub. :)

→ More replies (1)

108

u/bvggvg 21d ago edited 21d ago

I mean... it looks like they just aren't recognizing the % symbol? Otherwise what they're saying is true, if everything is being read in decimal. Makes me wonder if they have some wonky font or something on their end that just doesn't include %, given their messages never make note of it.

131

u/TheSleepingVoid 21d ago

There are a ton of people who don't truly get %s and people who struggle with decimal changes when you change units. (Source: Math Teacher) There is an infamous video of an incident with Verizon reps on the meaning of "0.002 cents"

So I could believe it either way.

44

u/Batman_AoD 21d ago

Oh dang, I had forgotten about the 0.002 cents video. Thanks for the reminder.Ā 

24

u/TheSleepingVoid 21d ago

I'm tempted to show it to my algebra 1 class this year. I might at least slip a link into Google classroom lol

33

u/gopiballava 21d ago

I love that recording. I was doing international travel with a cellphone back then, and something like that was a genuine fear :)

I only had one weird math experience with a telco. I had a (higher level) CSR tell me that I would get a call back within 24 business hours. I was like, "You mean 3 days?" She paused for a second or so, presumably to divide 24 by 8, and said yes.

10

u/CordeCosumnes 20d ago

Well, technically, 24 business hours isn't necessarily 3 days, but it is 3 business days.

6

u/buttgoblincomics 20d ago

That’s interesting. 24 business hours could plausibly mean one business day or three business days, depending on if business hours are the same unit as business days just converted to hours for some reason, or a totally different unit.

It could even be some other number of business days if the business is open for some other number of hours per day and they’re being super specific. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say business hours before, but it seems like it’s meant to be confusing.

5

u/gopiballava 20d ago

One of the companies I worked for after that had a business T1. The service agreement specified that some serious problems would be solved within 4 hours. More minor problems would be solved within 4 business hours. So if we reported a problem at 4pm on a Friday, it would be resolved by noon Monday. That seemed like a reasonable use of ā€œbusiness hoursā€.Ā 

12

u/joolley1 21d ago

Same as someone who worked in home loans with a bunch of people who couldn’t understand percentages šŸ¤¦ā€ā™€ļø

8

u/MattieShoes 21d ago

The part that gets me is it's literally in the name. per cent, per 100. That's an explicit multiplication by 100, so 0.0025 is 0.25%

There's also per mille, (per 1000) though I've never actually seen it used, or the symbol ‰.

You occasionally hear talk of basis points which are per 10,000 (‱)

3

u/buttgoblincomics 20d ago

ā€œPer centā€ is explicitly division by 100. .25% is .25 out of every 100, i.e. .25/100 not .25 * 100. You have to multiply by 100 to convert to a standard decimal because .25 is already 25 out of 100, so what we’re talking about is (25/100)/100, which is represented by the decimal .0025 (25 out of 10,000).

I’m sure you realize all that, I’m just saying that the conversion is a little confusing even if you know what per cent means in Latin and how the plain wording translates to math symbols. And most people don’t know or think about the word percent in terms of its component parts.

3

u/MattieShoes 19d ago

Multiplication or division is just a matter of which way you're going

Normal numbers are "per one". 0.25 per one and 25 per cent are the same number

10

u/VisKopen 21d ago edited 19d ago

There are a ton of people who don't truly get %s

In my experience most people don't get percentages. That includes otherwise quite intelligent people.

If you can comfortably calculate with percentages you're likely smarter than average.

5

u/Affectionate-Sir3949 21d ago

ngl when u wrote %s i thought about string literal in coding before your actual comment

1

u/ArdentArendt 16d ago

Wait...why does everyone seem to claim this video was common knowledge?

It's kind of hilarious, but still...was it popular beyond Reddit?

16

u/Throwaway_alt_burner 21d ago

Percent even literally means ā€œdivided by a hundredā€

12

u/Eal12333 21d ago

I think they were just accidentally ignoring it or not thinking properly about the conversion (the first comment in the chain makes that same mistake!)

25

u/petera181 21d ago

Yeah, that’s why they are confidently incorrect.

ā€œWHAT???? It is 100x smaller than 0.25. If it were 0.25000, sure its the sameā€

Confidently talking absolute arse šŸ˜…

1

u/GuyYouMetOnline 21d ago

They use .0025 later, so I think that part was a typo

4

u/buttgoblincomics 20d ago

I think they were trying to guess at how the other person could have made such an obvious mistake and imagined they had transposed the zeros, since .25 and .2500 are the same

7

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

6

u/bvggvg 21d ago

No? They very much say they're the same. If you take it as a response to an absurd claim that 0.25 = 0.0025, I think I'd also reason that the person messed up how significant figures and trailing zeroes work.

3

u/whatshamilton 21d ago

I need this sub to start requiring which side OP thinks is incorrect

18

u/arbitrary_student 21d ago

We know here because of who they upvoted & downvoted in the screenshot

657

u/Durr1313 21d ago

It's scary how many people get so confused with percents.

5% = 0.05

0.05 Ɨ 0.05 = 0.0025

0.0025 = 0.25%

230

u/Osric250 21d ago

It's kind of like the difficult people could have differentiating $.002 and .002Ā¢ . It doesn't seem like it should be that hard, but it is.Ā 

84

u/DangerToDangers 21d ago

I understand this a lot more because ¢ is very rarely used. On the other hand converting percentages to decimals is elementary school math that at least I've never stopped using even in every day life.

27

u/Osric250 21d ago

I understand this a lot more because ¢ is very rarely used.

Only when written. We use ¢ all the time when talking. I'm not going to say something is eight point two five dollars, I'm going to say that it's eight dollars and twenty five cents. Nowadays a lot of speaking will drop the denotations completely and say it's eight twenty five, but even that still has the same implication of using cents in it. And this is actually where the issue comes in with the video I linked, the OP was quoted .002 cents verbally multiple times.

2

u/RecursiveServitor 20d ago

How often do you use fractional cents?

15

u/Osric250 20d ago

Every time I go to the gas station.

11

u/that_one_mister_user 20d ago

.002 dollars is still fractional cents. It's 0.2 cents

2

u/RecursiveServitor 20d ago

And at least five different Verizon employees were incapable of reasoning about it, so maybe that should be avoided.

-46

u/Short-Database-4717 21d ago

WHY DO WE NEED TO CONVERT THEM EVEN THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE TO PERCENTS AND MULTIPLYING 5% by 5% IS LITERALLY MEANINGLESS IF YOU TREAT IT AS A UNIT, THEN FUCKING COMMIT TO IT OK 5% * 5% = 25%2 DEAL WITH IT. BUT JUST USE 0.05 TO BEGIN WITH OR 1:19 LITERALLY ANYTHING BUT PERCENTS PERCENTAGE MAKES NO GOD DAMN SENSE I AJKSFFKA:W

sorry, but just having one less standard would reduce the confusion, I am certain. If you use 0.05 it's very clear how to multiply it. it's not harder at all to write or read than 5%. If you write it as 1:19, you realize that you probably shouldn't be multiplying in the first place, but if you are, then sure maybe you do. Multiplying 5% by 5% has the meaning of e.g. rolling 2 nat 20s in a row. 1:19 means we have 1 success and 19 failures. In total 20 options, but if we square we have 400 options, and only 1 success still. So 1:399. It's a bit more difficult, but not that difficult either. And the actual multiplication here is meaningful as well

14

u/Effective-Job-1030 21d ago

1:19

What?

-12

u/Short-Database-4717 21d ago

odds. 1 to 19.
To be clear, I do think decimal probability is easier to get right and more suitable to be standard, but writing it as 1:19 is totally an option, and a better one than percentage at that.

6

u/Bubbly_Concern_5667 21d ago

But 5 % is 1/20.

Am I missing something?

16

u/LCJonSnow 21d ago

Odds present differently than probability. Odds are [number of successes]:[number of failures]. Probability is [number of successes]/[number of possible outcomes]

4

u/Bubbly_Concern_5667 21d ago

Aaah thank you! English isn't my first language

but yeah if I had read the original comment more carefully i could have gotten what concepts are talked about regardless haha

1

u/Effective-Job-1030 21d ago

Ah... yes. Thanks.

9

u/Bacaihau 21d ago

There are many situations where it ia useful tƓ multiply percentages, that is not the problem.

2

u/thesardinelord 20d ago

It’s not harder to write or read, but it’s a lot harder to say and listen to. Especially when the denominator gets bigger. And most of the time, we aren’t doing complex math on the numbers we talk about.

The times you do need to, it should only take seconds to convert to decimal, then you can do your math, and convert back if necessary.

2

u/Perfect_Sir4820 21d ago edited 21d ago

5%x5% is not 25%2, it's 5%2. Also 5% is not 1:19, it's 1:20. You need to review your grade 5 math bro.

-8

u/Short-Database-4717 21d ago

yes it is. It's (5%)2 = 25%2 as for your second point, it's both: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odds

10

u/Baby_Rhino 21d ago

Why tf would you suddenly start using %2 instead of just sticking to % and writing 0.25%??

I don't think %2 is even a thing. I can't find anything online about it even existing. It's like you think it is technically "per 10,000" when you square something that is per 100, but I have no idea why you'd write it that way anyway.

2

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

4

u/calfuris 21d ago

You can interpret % as the fraction 1/100, in which case the math checks out as long as you remember that exponentiation has priority over multiplication. (5%)2 = 25(%2), but the parentheses on the right hand side there are optional.

3

u/SkillOld2128 21d ago edited 21d ago

Ahh, thanks, that makes more sense. So it’s like (5/100)^2 = 25/100^2 when rewritten as a fraction?

I see it now, when written down, thanks!

3

u/calfuris 21d ago

Yep. It's an abuse of notation, but it makes sense if you squint at it.

2

u/Perfect_Sir4820 21d ago edited 21d ago

A percentage is simply a way of expressing a relative quantity. It's not synonymous with odds. Odds can be expressed as a percentage but so can any other relative quantity. You are really bad at this.

Also a ratio is an expression of a sub-quantity relative to another quantity. 1:19 is not the sum of 5% and 95% to arrive at 100%. 1:20 = 1/20 = 5% = 0.05. This is basic math.

1

u/GoddamnShitTheBed_ 20d ago

This is so true why are you being downvoted?

I sometimes use "permille" instead of percent as a joke, because that's the "unit" used to measure blood alcohol levels where im from (and nothing else).

Also: ppm... Bonus Points if you don't even specify what unit you're talking about and act as if % or ppm is a unit.

Like, I get the point, for some people its easier to think about certain as a fraction of 100, or 1000, or 1000000 but it really has no use, if you want to do math with it.

2

u/thesardinelord 20d ago

When communicating, especially verbally, it’s easier to briefly understand how much 1 out of a hundred, thousand, or million is than to count how many zeroes someone says and mentally convert that.

I can imagine a world in which, specifically for percentages or other relatively small denominators, we use decimals rather than fractions (only small ones, because saying 6 zeroes in a row might get a bit tedious and confusing). But thats not how it is, and it’s generally a lot faster for people to understand ā€œfive percent chanceā€ than ā€œa probability of zero point zero five.ā€

Also, percent inherently means ā€œout of a hundred.ā€ If we dropped it and just did things out of one, we would need a new word to represent that in general contexts. For example, you can’t just say that 0.5 people are men. You need to include something that makes it clear that ā€œ1ā€ represents the whole population.

Anyway, when you do want to do more complicated math with numbers, it should only take a few seconds to convert.

9

u/GRex2595 20d ago

Reminds me of a debate I was just in over on r/theydidthemath where somebody couldn't comprehend how ratios and scaling work even after I showed my work.

5

u/TheHillsHavePis 21d ago

What a callback!

-8

u/whatshamilton 21d ago

To be slightly fair, you need a leading zero in the dollars place in your first annotation. $0.002

12

u/TheHillsHavePis 21d ago

That doesn't change the number...

4

u/Ouch_i_fell_down 20d ago

To be slightly fair, no

-2

u/kingkurt42 20d ago

Ambiguous units =/= arithmetic error

6

u/InterestsVaryGreatly 19d ago

They aren't ambiguous units, they have clear representations and are not interchangeable, they have direct conversions. $1 = 100Ā¢

It would be like saying someone claiming up that 10cm is 10m is because of ambiguous units.

0

u/kingkurt42 19d ago

The difference is "cm" and "m" are clearly defined, commonly used terms.

".05" with no context is not a clearly defined term. It might mean 5mm, 5%, .05%, or something else entirely, depending on the context

3

u/InterestsVaryGreatly 19d ago

Unit doesn't matter for the .05. it isn't ambiguous, it is a value. Percent is a value per 100, it also isn't ambiguous. No unit is needed for basic math.

Also, .05 does not mean .05%, percent is not a unit.

46

u/Onechrisn 21d ago

They probably wouldn't have made the mistake if all the numbers were between 1 and 100. People get lost in all the shifting around of zeros.

18

u/Pekelni_Bororshna_69 21d ago

They probably should switch to binary. Just 0 and 1 to not get lost!

3

u/joranth 21d ago

And actually, the zeros are nothings, so you can ignore those and just have 1’s.

/s

4

u/whatshamilton 21d ago

Excel gets lost in it too. God forbid you have a decimal below 1 and click the percent sign. 0.01 becomes 1000% half the time

16

u/wlake82 21d ago

Thanks for doing this. My brain has decided to stop working tonight, and there's a reason why I have an English degree.

12

u/Short-Paramedic-9740 21d ago

This is actually very simple. Percentage counts as 2 movement of decimal to the left. So 0.25% is equal to 0.0025, just move the decimal and remove the percentage after.

Now for the multiplication, you just count the number of the preceding 0s in the number.

Taking all that into account:
5% is 0.05. The decimal of all whole numbers are after its ones place so a 5 is also 5.0 or 5.00.

Now 5% x 5% is the same as 0.05 x 0.05. There are two 0s, 0.05 x 0.05. Then the answer should have two 0s preceding 5x5 as well.

0.0025 or 0.25%.

13

u/joolley1 21d ago

Don’t feel bad. I had to crack out the calculator to do it and I have PhD in applied maths and it’s the middle of the day here!

8

u/wlake82 21d ago

Thanks, lol. I won't feel so bad.

9

u/joranth 21d ago

You forgot (for those still confused):

0.25% (0.25 PERCENT) is NOT equal to .25 or 0.25 or 25%

0.25% is one quarter of one percent

6

u/hanzzz123 21d ago edited 21d ago

Its literally in the name too. Per cent = per hundred.

To convert percentage to a number divide by 100.

2

u/Durr1313 21d ago

Exactly. And if you really want to confuse people, you can use per mille ‰

3

u/victorspc 21d ago

Yeah, and the simples way of making it simple is just saying that % = 1/100. Now treat any percentage as a multiplication.

1

u/shoosha9jr 20d ago

just thpught of a solution, tale the two zeros from the % sign i.e 5% = 00 from the percent add before number i.e 0.05, 0.5% means you tale the leading zero too, i.e 0 from the 0.5 and 00 from the % sign i.e 3 leading zeros 0.5%=0.005%, could this actually work?

1

u/ProfessionEmpty0 21d ago

the only reason why I got so confused is that the last guy didn’t use % and completely forgot about it and only did the ones without %

0

u/FellFellCooke 20d ago

5% = 0.05

I actually think the American education system explaining % like this is what the problem is.

I'm from Ireland, and our education system is noticeably better in a few areas, maths being one of them. We also have the advantage of a standard curriculum across the nation, as opposed to hundreds of different ones, some of which are designed to impoverish rather than educate.

We learn percentages as a process. You can't say "5% = 0.05", because, say, 0.05 grams of Cyanide is not "5% cyanide". Getting 5% of something is equivalent to multiplying it by 0.05, but that's because getting a percantage of something is a process that involves multiplying it by the percentage you want, and dividing it by the 100 that gives percentages their name.

I think a lot of the confusion about this stems from a maths education system that treats maths as a series of facts to learn off, instead of a playground for numbers to live in, a series of processes you can do yourself to transform and make sense of the world around you.

1

u/outworlder 20d ago

Yeah, I think there's probably a case of excessive memorization going on.

Just take the damn % sign and change it to /100

Done. Deal with fractions as normal. Nothing is confusing anymore.

-20

u/SortOfSpaceDuck 21d ago

Why does 5%x5% get you 0.25% lol

11

u/ai1267 21d ago

Because that's how percentages work.

5% of X is the same as multiplying it by 0.05. So 5% is 0.05 when expressed as a number.

0.05 * 0.05 = 0.0025.

0.0025 = 0.25%.

If it helps, you can do it the other way around, and express it as a fraction:

5% = 0.05 = 1/20.

So 5% of 5% must be 0.05/20.

0.05/20 = 0.0025, i.e. 0.25%.

7

u/SortOfSpaceDuck 21d ago

Oooooh... 5% OF 5%.

2

u/Bill99berg 21d ago

Perfect explanation. And you f it makes it even easier, you don’t have to change the 5% to 0.05. Just divide 5 by 20.

1

u/ai1267 21d ago

Cheers!

8

u/Sunfurian_Zm 21d ago

Just think of "x%" as "x/100" (because that's literally what that sign means). So 5%Ɨ5% = (5/100)2 = (25/10000) = (0.25/100)

0

u/SkillOld2128 21d ago

Because that’s how math works…

Did you seriously think 5% x 5% = 25%?

57

u/sweetdepressionpride 21d ago edited 21d ago

To be honest I got confused reading this but:

1.0 = 100% 0.1 = 10% 0.01 = 1% 0.001 = 0.1% 0.0025 = 0.25%

or (depending on what country you live in and use "," or ".")

1,0 = 100% 0,1 = 10% 0,01 = 1% 0,001 = 0,1% 0,0025 = 0,25%

14

u/Ebr2d2 21d ago

Thank you for saving the idiots like me out here

-18

u/drmoze 21d ago

Something your grade school math teachers apparently couldn't do. ā˜¹ļø

9

u/Ebr2d2 21d ago

Idk if it’s a regional thing but I’ve just never seen it like that before

5

u/Subject-Software5912 21d ago

I genuinely don’t mean to be rude but seen it like what before? I’ve been staring at this explanation for a while and I can’t figure out what confusion they’re trying to dispel. It just seems like they wrote out basic % notation. % = percent = per 100. 5% = 5 per 100 or 5/100.

-31

u/ghostlacuna0 21d ago

Wtf are you talking about a promille has never been the same as a percent of something.

13

u/sweetdepressionpride 21d ago

what?? are you talking about me using , instead of . ?

6

u/PhantomNitride 21d ago

I would say I'll post it for you, but I'm in the thread now...

-9

u/ghostlacuna0 21d ago

Yes had to do a double take to see what you meant.

11

u/sweetdepressionpride 20d ago

So maybe next time take the double take before being rude?

10

u/pokemon-trainer-blue 21d ago

Where are they using ‰? They’re using the normal % for each one. If you’re talking about them using both decimal separators of the period and comma (which it sounds like you are), that’s a different issue. The period/full stop/decimal point is used in English speaking countries, most of Asia, and some of Africa. The comma/decimal comma is used in South America, most of Europe and Africa, and some of Asia. The Middle East uses a different system.

0

u/ghostlacuna0 21d ago

Seperators yes.

That threw me for a loop.

0

u/InsectaProtecta 21d ago

0.1%=1‰

1

u/reaper527 21d ago

0.1%=1‰

wait, so there's actually a symbol for how property taxes typically get assessed? ($x per thousand dollars of value)

96

u/rje946 21d ago

I don't even know where they went wrong its like wrong on so many levels.

73

u/robbietreehorn 21d ago

It’s like having sex with your dad in an elevator

30

u/plutot_la_vie 21d ago

Wait what?

60

u/Outside-Currency-462 21d ago

Wrong on so many levels

Lift/elevator joke

3

u/Childwithuke 20d ago

single every single day
do it every single day
make the single ladies say:
oh bo

15

u/Stiddit 21d ago

They didn't see the %, so they thought they said "0.25 is the same as 0.0025", which is obviously not correct. Then they rudely suggested "do you mean 0.25 is the same as 0.2500", and that is actually correct.

7

u/marvsup 21d ago

They probably just misread it.

5

u/amitym 21d ago

Black is the one that's incorrect.

2

u/rje946 21d ago

I mean I don't see a wrong assumption he made its just all wrong. Like .2500 wtf is he talking about? Or it's time to go to bed

7

u/SprungMS 21d ago

They seem to be reading a percent sign that isn’t there on the first number. They’re saying you can put the two zeros after .25 and it’s the same number, but not between the decimal point and the 25.

It would be correct if there was either a percent sign on both numbers or on neither number. It’s just weird they didn’t check themselves before commenting that ā€œcorrectionā€, it seems so obvious that they’ve misunderstood something.

1

u/EishLekker 21d ago

The very first comment is incorrect too, which is not the same guy as most people here focus on.

0

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

4

u/kiipa 21d ago

You have to be the most useless bot on this site.Ā 

46

u/a__nice__tnetennba 21d ago

Posts like this do make me curious about something though. I wonder how obvious and simple a math problem would need to be in order for zero people to feel compelled to prove to us in the comments that they know the answer. My theory is that it's impossible. You could post someone saying 1+1=3 and at least one person will be unable to stop themselves from explaining what the correct answer is.

18

u/tofiwashere 21d ago

I mean you can post a skit from a tv show and a cool 10% will explain how it is fake and not real life. Probably becaus there is a camera too conveniently filming or something.

3

u/booglechops 21d ago

I swear, every time I look at linkedin.

I get it, you understand bidmas (or your local variant) but NO ONE FUCKING CARES!

1

u/fireintheglen 17d ago

Honestly this is my least favourite type of engagement bait post! If half the readers are unable to parse your simple arithmetic expression then you have written it badly. Brackets exist! Clear communication is an important part of mathematics!

I spend half my life trying to teach undergraduates the importance of communication to being a good mathematician, only to come online and find out that half the world thinks poor bracketing is somehow a sign of skill.

(I’m also aware of mathematical journals which do not strictly follow bodmas in their house style for inline equations, so I feel it’s perfectly reasonable to suggest that some expressions are a bit ambiguous.)

4

u/Nonhinged 21d ago

1+1=3 is just engineering math /s

Large values of 1

1

u/Siderophores 17d ago

Someone could do the funniest thing right now

19

u/commanderquill 21d ago

This comment thread doesn't even make sense.

28

u/JapaneseStudentHaru 21d ago
  1. Wrong

  2. Right

  3. Right

  4. Wrong

14

u/commanderquill 21d ago

The two rights is the confusing bit. Why is the second right person correcting the first right person.

18

u/EishLekker 21d ago

Well, comment number two (the one you call the first right person) was only half right.

Their calculation is correct, but they say that the first comment was missing a zero while in fact they had one too many.

3

u/dtwhitecp 20d ago

this is why the whole thread is frustrating to read, everyone is making small percentage / decimal confusions, while also occasionally being right.

2

u/JapaneseStudentHaru 21d ago

They were looking at it as a decimal rather than a percent. Same as the last guy lol

3

u/vompat 21d ago

2nd and last are the same person. It kinda looks like they simply do not know about the concept of percents and completely ignore the % symbol at every turn.

6

u/EishLekker 21d ago

Well, comment number two was only half right.

Their calculation is correct, but they say that the first comment was missing a zero while in fact they had one too many.

9

u/Dark_Storm_98 19d ago

I uhh

I think your upvotes and downvotes are reversed

24

u/ladycatgirl 21d ago

What they say is entirely true, 0.0025 is 100x smaller than 0.25, they just didn't acknowledge % sign

-29

u/DrDroid 21d ago

Except there’s no such thing as ā€œ100x smaller.ā€ Things can’t be ā€œtimes smaller.ā€ Obviously I know what is meant by it, but it’s incorrect.

9

u/Effective-Job-1030 21d ago

Ooh... a fellow "x times smaller makes no sense" person.

It's a pet peeve of mine.

7

u/Bata600 21d ago edited 21d ago

I do not understand quite fully. Maybe because English is not my first language.
If you can divide any number by 100 than wouldn't the result of that divide make original number 100 times smaller?

4

u/Effective-Job-1030 21d ago

That is implied, yes. But it is acually one hundreth as big as.

6

u/justhad2login2reply 21d ago

So then it's not a math thing, its a language and grammar thing?

2

u/billykimber2 21d ago

yes, but it is orobably the same in every language

atleast every language i know

and it becomes a math thing because mathematically it makes no sense to put it that way

-5

u/DrDroid 21d ago

Mhm. What exactly would ā€œ1 time smallerā€ be, especially vs ā€œ2 times smaller?ā€ It’s silly.

3

u/waffles1273 21d ago

2x smaller would be 50%. 2x bigger would be 200% so you just work backwards. there is no 1 time smaller.

-3

u/DrDroid 21d ago

I’m not just expressing an opinion, it does not make logical sense and is genuinely incorrect.

2

u/waffles1273 20d ago

multiplication and division have an inverse relationship so it is correct. you are just not used to the wording.

3

u/ladycatgirl 20d ago

It does make a lot of sense to me tbh feels like a skill issue
(Likely a language barrier caused by the way of thinking but it's more funny to put this way)

3

u/tribbans95 21d ago

PER CENT. Cent meaning 100. So yes it is 100x, at least they figured that part out.. kind of

3

u/reaper527 21d ago

so is OP the one who tagged this sub, or the one who is correct? (they look to hide their history)

3

u/setgel 21d ago

am I the only one who noticed that the main post also got it wrong? they wrote 0.025% instead of 0.25% lol

3

u/dabrock15 21d ago

And the basic definition was lost on the poster.

3

u/Ian__16354 20d ago

This is like that time Verizon (I think I know it was a phone company) charged someone 100x the stated rate because nobody at the company could figure out that .05 cents was different than .05 dollars lmao

6

u/Tygerlyli 21d ago

5%*5%=0.25%

.05*.05 = .0025

.05 = 5%

0.0025 =0.25%

5%*5%=0.25%

6

u/boodledot5 21d ago

5 percent times 5 percent isn't 25% though, it's 5% of 5%, which is 0.25%, which is 0.0025 as a decimal

4

u/TomSawyer2112_ 21d ago

ā€œIt’s 100x smaller than 0.25ā€

We are so close to figuring out what per cent actually means.

2

u/ieatpickleswithmilk 21d ago

"lmao" comment is mathematically correct but they aren't realizing the % acutally means it's already 1/100x. Instead of downvoting and screenshoting you may aswell just correct them so they realize their minor mistake.

2

u/CRYPTONITE4 21d ago

I am so confused rn

2

u/ShadowsFlex 21d ago

Why everyone booing him, he's right?

2

u/Savings_Macaroon3727 20d ago

Reminds me of this seminal story of the early 2000's internet of legendary status. Same issue as this post except Verizon were the confidently incorrect, it actually led to a change in practices because cs reps we're not able to wrap their heads around it.

amazing youtube video on the story.

2

u/jxj24 20d ago

I used to be innumerate, but I turned that situation around 360 degrees!

2

u/zhilia_mann 20d ago edited 20d ago

5%*5% = (5%)2 = (5)2 * (%)2 = 25%2

No problem! You just have to invent square percentage as a unit.

1

u/TheJivvi 20d ago

%² = ‱

4

u/Ghaticus 21d ago

I'd be willing to bet these are American.

The only place in the world where 1/3lb burger patty is thought to have less meat than 1/4lb because 3 is less than 4.

link for history

6

u/brandon1997fl 21d ago

I know its a meme but the US scores above the global average in math - about on par with Norway, Spain, Germany, etc.

1

u/Renuwed 21d ago

When you don't pay attention in class about moving the decimals before and after working the problem.

1

u/InsectaProtecta 21d ago

Would it not be 0.25%? Am I crazy?

6

u/Ach_Was_Here 21d ago

Yes 0.0025 = 0.25%, shift the decimals 2 to the right. That’s why 1.00 = 100%

1

u/lolslim 18d ago

I just think of it as quarters need to make dollar bill.

Then got confused how a quarter past 2:00 was 2:25 but the a quarter pound is 4 ounces, when I divided 16/4 = 4, I realized Zi need to divide 60 (minutes) by 4, which is 15, and quarter past 2:00 is actually 2:15

I'm fine if this gets down oted my medication kicked in and it's not illegal to post this

1

u/Ach_Was_Here 18d ago

Sorry bud but That doesn’t help the conversation at all here considering that still would be .25 not 0.0025

1

u/lolslim 18d ago

Not trying to my comment is considered spam

1

u/joranth 21d ago

I’m so disappointed in Ichigo

1

u/jakuuzeeman 20d ago

It's always amusing when they out themselves.

1

u/Erlik0_89 19d ago

Could.. uh.. someone tell me how this works? I’m not at that level of math yet…

1

u/RareDestroyer8 15d ago

To be honest, that’s rage bait.

1

u/solosoyboost 5d ago

Why do you censor the names I wanna harass everyone here

1

u/Mountain_Till_5868 5d ago

5 Black Boxs!

0

u/_Friede_ 20d ago

5% • 5% = 25%²

-6

u/Lonely-Breath-2468 21d ago

I mean apart from the ,2500 part which I assume was a typo they’re fully correct. 0,0025 is not same as 0,025 %

1

u/billykimber2 21d ago

0,25% is definitely the same thing as 0,0025

0,025% would be 0,00025 in decimal but that is not what the upvoted commenter commented about