Many times lighter??

The BBQ Pit
1

Heard this phrase tonight on Discovery-Wings channel. How advanced manufacturing techniques made a propellor “just as strong and may times lighter” than a conventional solid propellor.

Jeez, that kind of language use cheeses me off. Throw in crap like “twice as cold”, “twice as small”, and “Three times less”.

Don’t these people know about fractions? Don’t they know that there is only heat or it’s absence, and “cold” is not a measurable quantity? Don’t they know that a volume multiplied by a counting number is a LARGER volume?

That is all.

2

Now, NOw, jimbo, calm down. You’ve got to remember that Discovery is for the masses who have no idea about fractions, much less the existence of quantities that cannot be measured. And volumes multiplies by a counting number equalling a larger volume? :eek:

hands jimbo a cup of tea

:slight_smile:

(wonders if it’s OK to :slight_smile: in The Pit…)

3

The OP is many times less dumb than it first appears.

I had to read it several less times before it made twice as much sense to me.

Yeah, I hate “twice as cold” too. Light one of their hands afire, I say. And tell them the unburning hand is twice as un-singed.

4

It’s one of my pet peeves as well. I mean, sure, you can multiply something by a fraction and make it “many times less,” but the term is just damned confusing and really unnecessary.

5

One of my textbooks is full of helpful equations to show that Processor A is “three times slower” than Processor B.

It’s driving me nuts. (No pirate jokes, please.)

6

I forgot about “slower”. Bastards!

7

“Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should.” This was determined by the good tasting cigarette council? They didn’t invite me, damn them.

8

I think I understand. If it’s zero degrees outside today and it’s going to be twice as cold tomorrow, then, uh…

I’ll get back to you on this one.

9

Three times smaller.
Twice as cold.
Five times slower.

Many times dumber.

Count me in as one who hates this, too.

10

Fractions suck!!!

11

[Barbie]Math is hard![/Barbie]

12

I was just thinking about thisthe other day and it irritates me, too.

“This plan will cost three times less…”

No, it won’t, you two-times less education moron! It’ll cost a third as much!

Ironically, I have a copy of Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos on my desk even as I type.

13

I did nothing today. But I’ll do twice as much tomorrow.

14

Forgot to mention… I agree with the OP a hundred-and-ten percent.

15

I hate this too and thought it was only done by the mathematically challenged until I saw it used in Scientific American, something along the lines of “star X is ten times closer than star Y”. Sorry, SA, I now think you are two times less smart.

16

Three times smaller = one thrid the size

Twice as cold = half the temperature

Five times slower = one fifth the speed

Where’s the problem?

I agree it is bad form though, the same as using percentages for large numbers. Everybody gets that wrong. If last year we sold 100 and this year we sold 1600, we did not increase our sales by 1600%. Percentages are best used when they are under, say, 50, and then it is better to use factors.

17

Sailor,
It’s not that we don’t inderstand it, it’s that it’s WRONG! And many times, these terms are used in forums where the writers/speakers SHOULD know better. I mean Scientific American, fer Christ sake!

18

Shouldn’t that be “unsung”?

:smiley: D&R

19

“Ten times as close” doesn’t bother me as much as the other examples, because there’s an implied specific reference point. I’m assuming the phrase meant that “Star B is ten times as close to Earth as Star A.” So at least in this case it makes sense that, if Star B is one-tenth the distance (from Earth) that Star A is, Star B has ten times the “closeness” (to Earth) that Star A has.

Some of the other phrases make no sense at all, though. (Another rant should deal with people saying “two times more” to mean “twice as much”…)

20

BTW, i totally agree with the OP.

[slight hijack]

But i am intrigued about one thing. How you you determine whether one temperature is twice as hot as another?

With speed, volume, length, etc. it’s easy, and no matter what units are used you get the same result.

For example, 2 miles is twice as far as 1 mile, and 3.2186km is twice as far as 1.6093km. And 3.2186km is twice as far as 1 mile.

But, while 20C might seem, at first glance, to be twice as hot as 10C, 68F does not seem to be twice as hot as 50F.

So, how should we measure a doubling in tempertaure? Should we only use Kelvin, because that gives us an absolute zero? What’s the deal here?

[/slight hijack]