3 ms·
I don't find it clear at all. 20 times what? All I get out of that is that whatever reduction is happening is probably big because I'm not context blind, but th
by tryptophan 8y ago
I don't find it clear at all. 20 times what? All I get out of that is that whatever reduction is happening is probably big because I'm not context blind, but then again it could be a 20 x .000001% reduction. When saying X is 20 times larger that is unambiguous, it just means 20X. When something is being reduced 20 times what does that mean? X - something20?? X-20? X/20?
- tlb 8y ago"Reduce X by 20 times" means that X becomes X/20.
- seandougall 8y agoI read it as a shorthand for "reduce by a factor of 20" -- crucially, I believe `x` is meant to represent `⨉` (the multiplication symbol), as opposed to `𝓍` (a scalar variable). The reason it drives me crazy is that I can't help but read it as being equivalent to multiplying by -19 (particularly when it's phrased like "such and such is now 20x less foobarish"). But even I have to concede that it clearly doesn't mean that.