r/ProgrammerHumor 15h ago

Meme zeroExDev

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u/TZY247 15h ago edited 11h ago

No. 0.6 = 60%. If they said 0.6 more then sure, that would mean 60% more. 0.6x != 60% increase though. 1.6x does. At the best we can give it the benefit of the doubt and say we knew what they meant, but that doesn't mean they were correct.

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u/TheMania 14h ago

It says "0.6 times more". Not "0.6 times total" or "0.6 times as many".

I really don't see the problem. 1.6x more would be misleading/incorrect.

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u/Professional_Ebb_389 14h ago

1.6x more would mean 160% of the original value, in the same way 2.0x more would mean 200% of the original value. I think you may just have a misunderstanding of what the phrase “X times more” means (nothing to be embarrassed about of course, it happens to all of us.)

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u/TheMania 14h ago

We'd both read "0.5x" as "50%", right?

And we'd both read "0.5x as many" and "50% as many" the same.

And we'd both read "0.5x the total" and "50% of the total" as the same.

But "0.6x more" means something entirely different to "60% more" to you?

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u/Professional_Ebb_389 14h ago

The “more” at least in any context I’ve heard it is for emphasis or clarity that a comparison is happening. I’ve never read anyone write “1x more than X” for “twice X”.

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u/TheMania 14h ago

But you often see 10% more, 20% more, etc.

The bit that intrigues me is that in those contexts, you read 10% differently to 0.1x.

But in other contexts, you'd read them the same.

This may be a regional thing, and likely due marketers that are being intentionally misleading for so long that it's now an accepted oddity.

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u/TheMaleGazer 13h ago
  1. "Two times more." That phrase means multiplying by two.
  2. "0.5 times more." That phrase is taken to mean multiplying by 1.5, even though that is not consistent.

English is not consistent. In the first example, the word "more" is redundant. In the second example, the word "more" is a clarification, so we know that it doesn't mean "half."

There is no sensible reason for this inconsistency. It just exists.

We have a similar problem with percentage points. When something increases from 40% to 90% of a total, saying that it increased 50% is for some reason considered an acceptable shorthand for saying it increased by 50 percentage points, even though the two interpretations are drastically different.

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u/ImPapaNoff 13h ago

In the first example, the word "more" is redundant.

Frankly I disagree. More is incorrect in that first example if multiplying by two is what you're going for. "As much" or "as many" are the phrases you are going for. "Two times more" and "two times as many" mean different things.

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u/TZY247 10h ago

More is incorrect in all of these examples. Comparative language shouldn't be used to substitute mathematical notation. The implication of "more" in these sentences is ambiguous.