• ChaosMaterialist [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 month ago

    It makes much more sense when converted into fractions and multiply, where you have 9/10 and 11/10 respectively. Using percentages outside of a fixed reference causes all the confusion.

      • aebletrae [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        But, but… percentages are already fractions. Per cent = “out of a hundred”.

        The % symbol even looks like a fraction to remind everyone.

        Now, simplifying fractions from 90/100 to 9/10—in spite of it literally being removing a zero from each side—does seem to cause some real problems.

          • aebletrae [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            1 month ago

            How are you at thinking about years, decades, and centuries?

            If we take it step by step:—

            • 10 years of a century is ten years out of a hundred.
            • 10% is ten out of a hundred.
            • So 10 years is 10% of a century.

             

            Looking at the same thing another way:—

            • 10 years is a also a decade.
            • There are 10 decades in a century.
            • So one decade is one tenth (1/10) of a century.

             

            Bringing in the comparison from earlier:—

            • 90% of a century is 90 years, or 9 decades.
            • 9 decades is nine tenths (9/10) of a century.
            • 110% of a century is 110 years, or 11 decades.
            • 11 decades is eleven tenths (11/10) of a century.

             

            Are these familiar enough to make sense as a parallel, or just further irrelevant confusion?

            • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 month ago

              How are you at thinking about years, decades, and centuries?

              not a lot, usually

              It’s not like I don’t get the train of thought here, it just doesn’t come intuitive

        • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 month ago

          But, but… percentages are already fractions. Per cent = “out of a hundred”.

          You are correct. It’s more like leaving off the Unit from a number, with that causing an incorrect conversion somewhere else.

      • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        I finally learned to convert fractions and imperial vs metric by selling drugs and working retail lol.

        For example I can tell you that one OZ = 0.625 0.0625* LB off the dome but don’t ask me to do calculus.