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"Reports about the number of federal agents assigned to the Clinton probe have ranged from roughly a dozen to fewer than 50." That's not a range.
by ianferrel 11y ago
"Reports about the number of federal agents assigned to the Clinton probe have ranged from roughly a dozen to fewer than 50."
That's not a range.
- erikpukinskis 11y agoYes it is. There were multiple estimates. The lowest was "roughly a dozen" the highest was "less than 50". The two ends of the range use different units and have different significant figures because they came from two different calculations. In theory the author could have tried to unify those points on the same number line with the same sig figs, but I'm not even sure what the rules are for ranges built from two separate calculations. If there even is a rule you'd get something like "range from 10 to 50" and only math geeks would have a clear picture of what those zeroes really mean, and even they would've lost the "not 50" and "quite possibly less than 10" information the existing phrasing provides.
- flashman 11y agoWell, it's hard to express using numeric operators, but still comprehensible.