this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2024
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Science Memes

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Percentages (mander.xyz)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

That's not even a stat question, it is a english question. It is an increase by 80% not to 80%
Statistics only come to play to figure out our new chances.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe I'm wrong but by writing "increase by 80%" there is ambiguity you don't get if you instead spelled out:

  1. Increase by 80 percent
  2. Increase by 80 percentage points
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I'm not an expert either and your second option is definitly clearer than mine but I believe the % symbol doesn't have the meaning of percentage point.

It is better to make things easier for people to understand but people should also make the effort of properly reading even when it is not fully dumbed down. These are prepositions, so basic english not scientist jargon.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Im a high school maths teacher and that's what we're supposed to teach, % means percent, not percentage points. Maths always tries to have agreed-upon unambiguous definitions of things, precisely to avoid confusion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Maths always tries to have agreed-upon unambiguous definitions of things, precisely to avoid confusion.

Laughs in ambiguous notation

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I thought of an example or two and corrected my comment to 'tries to' as I was typing haha

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Or "by 80 percentage points"

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

"By 80 percentage points" means add 80 more points to a number of percentage points, so 5% becomes 85%. "By 80 percent" means add 80 percent of the current value.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I know. By x % and by x percentage points is the most commonly confused pair, not by x % and to x %.