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As a person who has a degree in math, I can claim that I easily understand it. Yet I wasn't aware of it, and I've never used it (as a mental math trick). It wa

by bmacho 2y ago

As a person who has a degree in math, I can claim that I easily understand it. Yet I wasn't aware of it, and I've never used it (as a mental math trick). It was definitely surprising that it is true--and I wasn't aware of it.

eterm 2y ago
You really weren't aware that x% of y = y% of x? I find that very surprising. Maybe it was just the way I was taught percentages ( "% means /100, 'of' means multiply), but it seems too trivial a result to even be something worth commenting on.
- bmacho 2y ago
  Yes, I really wasn't aware. > but it seems too trivial a result to even be something worth commenting on. Yes, but I also think it is memetic and lovely enough to remembered it if you've encountered it. Calculating 52% of 25kg of something as 52/4=13 sparks joy.
redczar 2y ago
I have training in math and wasn’t consciously aware of this a few years ago when I first saw this. I didn’t then and don’t now think the language used was insulting.
- bmacho 2y ago
  I feel that categorizing people into math-doers and people that just merely apply formulas is insulting in general. Mathematicians can too use other people's theorems without working out all the details, not just people the working in other fields. (Also mathematicians use results from other fields in their daily lives all the time without understanding.) Also using this random factlet to sort them out seems especially weird, since - as I am an example, people with education in math might find it surprising - it is standard middle-school stuff, so everyone *understands* it, regardless of a degree in math - - - .. this is just a reasoning of why > For those of us who did maths this is obvious, but for those for whom maths was just a list of formulas and processes, applied without any real understanding, I can see that this can come as a surprise. is not lovely. Okay, I'm done. I've probably spent too much time on a random 2 sentences on a random internet stranger's blog, I don't find this topic that interesting.

by bmacho 2y ago

eterm 2y ago

You really weren't aware that x% of y = y% of x? I find that very surprising. Maybe it was just the way I was taught percentages ( "% means /100, 'of' means multiply), but it seems too trivial a result to even be something worth commenting on.

bmacho 2y ago
Yes, I really wasn't aware. > but it seems too trivial a result to even be something worth commenting on. Yes, but I also think it is memetic and lovely enough to remembered it if you've encountered it. Calculating 52% of 25kg of something as 52/4=13 sparks joy.

redczar 2y ago

I have training in math and wasn’t consciously aware of this a few years ago when I first saw this. I didn’t then and don’t now think the language used was insulting.

bmacho 2y ago
I feel that categorizing people into math-doers and people that just merely apply formulas is insulting in general. Mathematicians can too use other people's theorems without working out all the details, not just people the working in other fields. (Also mathematicians use results from other fields in their daily lives all the time without understanding.) Also using this random factlet to sort them out seems especially weird, since - as I am an example, people with education in math might find it surprising - it is standard middle-school stuff, so everyone *understands* it, regardless of a degree in math - - - .. this is just a reasoning of why > For those of us who did maths this is obvious, but for those for whom maths was just a list of formulas and processes, applied without any real understanding, I can see that this can come as a surprise. is not lovely. Okay, I'm done. I've probably spent too much time on a random 2 sentences on a random internet stranger's blog, I don't find this topic that interesting.