Arithmetic that makes you cringe

[hellymedic]

32F = 0C
-32 F = -35.5555C

[Giraffe]

Oops - it was 29ºC. Corrections beget errers.

[Lightning Phil]

I wonder what percentage of people here instinctively came up with 1 or 9?
I thought 1, due to the lack of a * before the parenthesis. If the * was there, I'd have said 9.

* is a coding thing rather than how it would be written in maths notation. Just like you’d write 3y not 3*y when writing the equation out.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I do wonder if this stuff should be in "Grammar that makes you cringe" not "Arithmetic..."

[T42]

I do wonder if this stuff should be in "Grammar that makes you cringe" not "Arithmetic..."

Maths notation being a formal grammar, yes.

[Giraffe]

 can't quite get this:
"UK halves emissions by 50%". The UK has halved its emission over the last 32 years - OK, but that headline... Could be 25% I suppose.

[Cudzoziemiec]

As Bristol24/7 first revealed in March, the bus gate on Spike Island has handed out 30,000 fines in its first three months since coming into operation in January, bringing in £500,000 for Bristol City Council.

That makes each fine about £16, which seems unlikely.

Sanders estimates the bus gate could rack up 116,000 PCNs in 2024, which he argues would fetch the council £4,000,000.

That makes each fine about £34, which not only contradicts the previous figure but still seems unlikely.

Perhaps these figures are after deduction of some costs, but this is never mentioned let alone specified, so if that is the case, it's just bad journalism – which, after all, is the source of most of this bad arithmetic.

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/controversial-bus-gate-that-raked-in-500000-in-fines-has-catastrophic-design-flaws/

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Inflation is falling.

[hellymedic]

Nice to know but while inflation of 3% is not as nasty as inflation of 10%, the prices are still going UP.

I get this.

Many don’t...