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> Books got 60 times cheaper in 50 years I'm always confused by this wording. Does this mean that the new price was 1/60th the original?
by notRobot 4y ago
> Books got 60 times cheaper in 50 years
I'm always confused by this wording. Does this mean that the new price was 1/60th the original?
- crazygringo 4y agoYes. If vanilla ice cream is twice as cheap as chocolate ice cream, that means you can buy two vanilla for one chocolate. Vanilla is half the price. Extrapolating, 60 times cheaper means 1/60th -- you could buy 60 books for the same price 1 book cost 50 years ago.
- euroderf 4y agoGood catch. A pet peeve of mine. Using "times" for a decrease in size is not too bright. I attribute it to laziness, because (apparently) nobody wants to actually form the word "sixtieth", not even mentally.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- xena 4y agoIt means that the process to make books was made 60 times less expensive, which allowed more people to afford making books.
- idiotsBeDamned 4y agoYes, we understood that, we're wondering about the numerical interpretation of "60x cheaper"
- Maken 4y agoI don't really see how it could be interpreted as anything as "the cost was 1/60 of the original".
- karatinversion 4y agoIndeed, “1/60th cheaper” cannot be used either, as it would mean the prices were as 59 is to 60
- c3534l 4y agoIt makes no sense. 100% cheaper would be free. 60,000% cheaper would imply they pay you the cost of 59 books to take it off your hands. That's quite a sale.
- tsimionescu 4y agoWhy are you adding % into the mix? 60 times cheaper means they cost 1/60 of the original price, which is (1-1/60)*100 =~98.3% cheaper.
- c3534l 4y agoBecause that's what "times more/less" means. 2 times the cost is 200% the cost. Half off is the price times fifty percent (1/2). A sixtieth isn't 60 times anything in any direction.
- hugh-avherald 4y agoTwice as cheap means half as expensive. It does not mean the price fell by 200%.
- tsimionescu 4y agoYou can think of "twice cheaper" as meaning "twice the amount for the same price", so "60 times cheaper" means you can buy 60 books for the price of 1.
- c3534l 4y agoWhile that has a logic to it, I don't think that's the logic or meaning of the terms as they are generally used in English. If you mean 98% cheaper, say that, not 60 times cheaper. Two times or three times the price means you multiply it by that integer value. For "less" or "cheaper" people use percentages or fractions. Using an integer for cheaper is wrong, IMO.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
- socialdemocrat 4y agoYes