'if you're like, "And 100%, that's the same thing as 1," they are totally baffled.'
huh? no way. that's easy peezy. you want baffling, explain how if you have a pie divided into three equal slices, it is 33.333333333333333333% of a pie.That .3 keeps going on forever! but that pie slice is not forever--mediate on that!
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 3 June 2010 21:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Or how unless you engage in tempering, 12 steps add up to MORE than an octave...
― Yes! Yes! Hammerheads! (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 3 June 2010 21:59 (thirteen years ago) link
Or how 0.49 recurring = 1/2
― every time i pull a j/k off the shelf (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:02 (thirteen years ago) link
What people believe the least, in my experience, is that 0.9999 (9 repeating) = 1.
― breaking that little dog's heart chakra (Abbott), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Ha I forgot that one was weird too
― every time i pull a j/k off the shelf (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:04 (thirteen years ago) link
The wiki on that one is a fun read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0.999...
― breaking that little dog's heart chakra (Abbott), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:05 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.freewebs.com/calvin-hobbes-org/dadandcalvinsrecordplayer.jpg
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:06 (thirteen years ago) link
too darn tired to read that wiki article thoroughly now, but I'm fascinated that it starts off with the assertion that 0.9 recurring does = 1, I'd assumed it demonstrated a flaw in the number system rather than a legitimate aspect of it.
― every time i pull a j/k off the shelf (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Students of mathematics often reject the equality of 0.999… and 1, for reasons ranging from their disparate appearance to deep misgivings over the limit concept and disagreements over the nature of infinitesimals. There are many common contributing factors to the confusion:
* Students are often "mentally committed to the notion that a number can be represented in one and only one way by a decimal." Seeing two manifestly different decimals representing the same number appears to be a paradox, which is amplified by the appearance of the seemingly well-understood number 1.[35] * Some students interpret "0.999…" (or similar notation) as a large but finite string of 9s, possibly with a variable, unspecified length. If they accept an infinite string of nines, they may still expect a last 9 "at infinity".[36] * Intuition and ambiguous teaching lead students to think of the limit of a sequence as a kind of infinite process rather than a fixed value, since a sequence need not reach its limit. Where students accept the difference between a sequence of numbers and its limit, they might read "0.999…" as meaning the sequence rather than its limit.[37]
― breaking that little dog's heart chakra (Abbott), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:12 (thirteen years ago) link
SOrry to turn this to a number geek thing, I think maybe this was abt being stoked & fully in it!
http://www.tchirts.com/store/images/P/100_Latina_T-shirt_B_Blck-01.jpg
― breaking that little dog's heart chakra (Abbott), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:14 (thirteen years ago) link
I like where this thread is going but i hope aerosmith isn't blowing chunks right now.
― Yes! Yes! Hammerheads! (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Abbot is blowing my mind like aerosmith is blowing his chunks.
― sinister chemical wisdom (Jenny), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:30 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fma4rHK6dTw
― ╓abies, Thursday, 3 June 2010 23:23 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EotJl93Omwojust dancin
― GENE PITNEY'S SWEATER BY KANDAHAR (los blue jeans), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:12 (thirteen years ago) link
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/g/ginuwine/album-100-ginuwine.jpg
ginuwine otm
― real eyes realize real truffle fries (dyao), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:17 (thirteen years ago) link
I love 100% of posts on this thread, the number stuff is 100% fun!
― get your bucket of free wings (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Back to the middle and 'round again
... I was sick for 4 days in a lonely hotel room in perth once with raging tonsillitis. I know all too well how unfun that is. Get well J!
― property-disrespecting Moroccan handjob (Trayce), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:51 (thirteen years ago) link
i get really angry when ppl random put things in percentage terms
― truffle fries are not a meme. truffle fries are not a meme is a meme (Lamp), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:52 (thirteen years ago) link
for what % of those times do you get really angry Lamp
― real eyes realize real truffle fries (dyao), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:54 (thirteen years ago) link
That is 24% so true.
― property-disrespecting Moroccan handjob (Trayce), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:54 (thirteen years ago) link
i feel like, when this happen, ppl are failing to apply any real statistical rigour to their analysis and are, for lack of a better term, just making things up
― truffle fries are not a meme. truffle fries are not a meme is a meme (Lamp), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:57 (thirteen years ago) link
my friend always tells me he is "60% certain" that something is going to happen, or has happened, or is happening now. he never even gives a margin of error
― truffle fries are not a meme. truffle fries are not a meme is a meme (Lamp), Friday, 4 June 2010 04:58 (thirteen years ago) link
It is really easy to be deceptive with percentages, especially when you start saying "x% more than" or "x% less than." A book that really helped me see the insidiousness of this is 200% of Nothing: An Eye Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Math Abuse and Innumeracy by A K Dewdney. I feel small shame bringing this up as it is: 200% book in the 100% thread, and A K Dewdney has since become a 9/11 truther, which is insane. But it's a good book about lying with math.
― breaking that little dog's heart chakra (Abbott), Friday, 4 June 2010 05:00 (thirteen years ago) link
"Roy, you said you were 90% certain it was this guy! YOU JUST WENT DOWN 15%!"
― property-disrespecting Moroccan handjob (Trayce), Friday, 4 June 2010 05:01 (thirteen years ago) link
actually I also dislike it when people say they are only 75% committed to a candidate or whatever
there is only one percentage you should be about anything and that percentage is 100, go hard or go home
― get your bucket of free wings (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Friday, 4 June 2010 06:28 (thirteen years ago) link
200% book in the 100% thread, and A K Dewdney has since become a 9/11 truther
also, this is 98% a crying shame and 2% lol
― get your bucket of free wings (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Friday, 4 June 2010 06:29 (thirteen years ago) link
<3%
― property-disrespecting Moroccan handjob (Trayce), Friday, 4 June 2010 07:03 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKlX_nnMVvI
― Scelsi Hotel (Paul in Santa Cruz), Friday, 4 June 2010 07:10 (thirteen years ago) link
A friend and I have long had a system of measuring our certainty of a statement based on percentage. As in, "Dude, no really, I'm like 90% on this one." Or as in, "Are you sure about that?" "Yeah, pretty much. I'm like 80-85%." It's a nice gauge. Keeps everybody honest.
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 08:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Neither of us ever say we're 100% on anything, though. That would be ridiculous.
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 08:48 (thirteen years ago) link
99.44 yo
Viewer mail: "Dear Dave, if Ivory soap is 99.44% pure, what's the other .66%?"
Dave, breaking open a fake prop bar of soap: "Delicious blueberry goo."
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 08:54 (thirteen years ago) link
I sort of love it when people quantify something as having 3 halves e.g. 'He's like one half Viking, one half capuchin monk and one half potato'.
― Yes! Yes! Hammerheads! (Jon Lewis), Friday, 4 June 2010 15:54 (thirteen years ago) link
TEN PERDEC MOFOS
― some men enjoy the feeling of being owned (acoleuthic), Friday, 4 June 2010 15:59 (thirteen years ago) link
This thread makes me want sports stars to start saying things like " I gave it 1 out there today" in interviews.
― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, 4 June 2010 16:00 (thirteen years ago) link
SIX PERHEX SHIT CHECK ME OUT
― some men enjoy the feeling of being owned (acoleuthic), Friday, 4 June 2010 16:00 (thirteen years ago) link
OTOH I don't love it and in fact seethe inside when people continue to use 'decimate' to mean 'totally wipe out'.
― Yes! Yes! Hammerheads! (Jon Lewis), Friday, 4 June 2010 16:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Is it supposed to be killing 1/10 or 9/10 coz I've heard it both ways.
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 4 June 2010 17:21 (thirteen years ago) link
It is dividing the mass of men to be punished into groups of 10, and within each group of 10 they draw lots and the one loser gets killed. So yeah killing 1 in 10. I am surprised to learn this was actually a disciplinary measure used on one's OWN forces, I always thought it was something you did to the able bodied males of your opponent once you had captured their city etc!
There is a simpler method used by some Soviet commander in WWII apparently:
In his book Stalingrad, Antony Beevor recounts how, during the Second World War, a Soviet Corps commander of a division practiced decimation on retreating soldiers by walking down the line of soldiers at attention, and shooting every tenth soldier in the face until his TT-33 pistol ran out of ammunition.
― Yes! Yes! Hammerheads! (Jon Lewis), Friday, 4 June 2010 17:41 (thirteen years ago) link
this makes me imagine frantic shuffling going on and a lot of "after you, my friend" "no I insist" before the lineup.
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 4 June 2010 18:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Jon Lewis, I am a little wiser and a little more appalled thanks to you. And I'll probably never misuse "decimated" again, so good job.
― sinister chemical wisdom (Jenny), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:08 (thirteen years ago) link
Srsly, I have been misusing that word for years. Little did I know that the only correct usage is so specific that I may as well forget the word ever existed.
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Right? If the Flyers decimate the Blackhawks, there are going to be much larger problems for the team than losing the Stanley Cup.
― sinister chemical wisdom (Jenny), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:12 (thirteen years ago) link
100% is my favorite chromeo song
― max, Friday, 4 June 2010 18:18 (thirteen years ago) link
I'll fess up to misusing it but I'm going to continue misusing it on the grounds that you could kill 1/10th of the each person's body, like the head part.Also gonna keep misusing "begging the question" because there's no equivalent that sounds better.
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 4 June 2010 18:22 (thirteen years ago) link
Raising the question.
― sinister chemical wisdom (Jenny), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:24 (thirteen years ago) link
"Raising the question" isn't cool enough for you?
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:24 (thirteen years ago) link
xp Yeah.
Just avoiding the one grammar aspie who is going to pipe up and point out that you mean "raising the question" is worth modifying your behavior, IMHO.
"Grammar aspie" was kind of a mean thing to say. I'm sorry.
― sinister chemical wisdom (Jenny), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:25 (thirteen years ago) link
I think people get hung up on the difference between "begging the question" and "I beg to differ". Just a theory.
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:26 (thirteen years ago) link
"raising" doesn't have the tugging david copperfield feel of "begging"
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 4 June 2010 18:27 (thirteen years ago) link
w/ 'decimate' it's stupid to claim that people are 'misusing' it - there's a modern, alternate use of the word (which is much more useful than the historical definition) and you can find it among the definitions in any dictionary.
― iatee, Friday, 4 June 2010 18:28 (thirteen years ago) link
xp "Please sir, may I have some more reasoning?"
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:28 (thirteen years ago) link
Well sure ppl aren't exactly MISUSING it but I really hate the idea that they don't know what a cool term it is (was?)
― Yes! Yes! Hammerheads! (Jon Lewis), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:32 (thirteen years ago) link
okay I can agree w/ that
― iatee, Friday, 4 June 2010 18:33 (thirteen years ago) link
I can think of ten words that people will say the same of in 200 years. Some in just 50.
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:34 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, I think the meaning of the word "decimate" has expanded over time, as definitions tend to do. freedictionary.com:
dec·i·mate1. To destroy or kill a large part of (a group).2. Usage Problema. To inflict great destruction or damage on: The fawns decimated my rose bushes.b. To reduce markedly in amount: a profligate heir who decimated his trust fund.3. To select by lot and kill one in every ten of.
― contraceptive lipstick (askance johnson), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:36 (thirteen years ago) link
fuckin trust funders
― iatee, Friday, 4 June 2010 18:37 (thirteen years ago) link
Actually the "usage note" following that definition is kinda fascinating:
Usage Note: Decimate originally referred to the killing of every tenth person, a punishment used in the Roman army for mutinous legions. Today this meaning is commonly extended to include the killing of any large proportion of a group. Sixty-six percent of the Usage Panel accepts this extension in the sentence The Jewish population of Germany was decimated by the war, even though it is common knowledge that the number of Jews killed was much greater than a tenth of the original population. However, when the meaning is further extended to include large-scale destruction other than killing, as in The supply of fresh produce was decimated by the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, only 26 percent of the Panel accepts the usage.
― contraceptive lipstick (askance johnson), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:38 (thirteen years ago) link
How do I get to be on the "usage panel"????
― contraceptive lipstick (askance johnson), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:39 (thirteen years ago) link
You have to be a combination of jaymc, la lechera, and Superman.
― sinister chemical wisdom (Jenny), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:40 (thirteen years ago) link
that would do it, surely
― contraceptive lipstick (askance johnson), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:41 (thirteen years ago) link
I am neither Jewish nor fresh produce, so I doubt I would have a place on the panel.
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Inside information: the anti-fresh-produce lobby totally rigged that election.
― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, 4 June 2010 18:46 (thirteen years ago) link
See these 'usage panels' are exactly the kind of thing Sarah Palin was trying to warn us about!
― Yes! Yes! Hammerheads! (Jon Lewis), Friday, 4 June 2010 19:19 (thirteen years ago) link