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> Average prices of WTI rose roughly 52-fold between 1970 and 2014, in current dollars Surely that can't be right? Wouldn't that mean that 2014 price = 1970 *
by rtpg 11y ago
> Average prices of WTI rose roughly 52-fold between 1970 and 2014, in current dollars
Surely that can't be right? Wouldn't that mean that 2014 price = 1970 * 2^(52) ?
- Turbo_hedgehog 11y agoNever. -fold is times, so it's 52x
- colechristensen 11y agohttp://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=-fold&allowed_in_frame=0 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=-fold&allowed_in_fr... Even though one might think it's 2^x (fold something in half twice and it's 4 times as thick, three times and it's 8, etc.) it's actually a rather archaic usage for multiplying.
- SamReidHughes 11y agoImagine a fan-fold.
- bottled_poe 11y agoI think the point is that the term is ambiguous.
- SamReidHughes 11y agoIt's not.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoNo longer as common as it used to be, perhaps even archaic, but not ambiguous.
- QuantumRoar 11y agoWeird. I also learned that -fold is not the same as times. For example, cosmic inflation was 60-fold, not times. But when I look it up, it says -fold is equivalent to just a multiple.
- brc 11y agoThat is not inflation adjusted. Also 1970 is before the usd was taken off the gold standard, and the subsequent oil shocks that followed. Gold/oil has traded in a range that whole time, while gold/usd and oil/usd has changed, well, 52 times. Inflation adjusted today's prices are not that bad in comparison.