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Off-topic, but every time I see the phrase "a fraction of what it was" I get a bit miffed. 99/100 is a fraction. 101/100 is a fraction. Every thing that gets me

Off-topic, but every time I see the phrase "a fraction of what it was" I get a bit miffed. 99/100 is a fraction. 101/100 is a fraction. Every thing that gets measured in time intervals is always going to be a fraction of what it was before, bigger or smaller.

roel_v 11y ago
That's one meaning of the word. It also means 'much smaller than it once was'. Funny thing with words is that they can mean different things in different contexts.
- irishcoffee 11y ago
  Does it? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fraction http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fraction
  - roel_v 11y ago
    Did you even read you link? The very page you link to says "3. bit, little <a fraction closer>".
kazinator 11y ago
"A fraction of what it was" is a common idiom, which uses fraction in the ordinary sense. "Fraction" is related to words like "fracture" and "fragment". When you fraction something into pieces, they are always smaller than the whole (barring strange spatial partitionings: Banach-Tarski paradox and all that). Maybe you were playing hooky in grade 3 when the teacher explained that 101/100 is an improper fraction, which can be rewritten as 1 1/100: the whole number 1, combined with a proper fraction. See? "Improper!" Mathematics recognizes a special status for fractions where the numerator has greater magnitude. Also, ever heard of the "integral" and "fractional" parts of a floating-point number? See the ISO C99 function modf, for instance.
- irishcoffee 11y ago
  An improper comment is still a comment. An improper fraction is still a fraction. What exactly is your point? I'm not sure why you felt the need to be snarky.
dragonwriter 11y ago
Words and phrases have multiple, context-dependent meanings. That's just how natural language works. "a fraction of ..." is commonly used in informal and/or non-technical contexts to mean what would be expressed in a more technical context as "a positive, proper fraction of ..."

roel_v 11y ago

That's one meaning of the word. It also means 'much smaller than it once was'. Funny thing with words is that they can mean different things in different contexts.

irishcoffee 11y ago
Does it? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fraction http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fraction
- roel_v 11y ago
  Did you even read you link? The very page you link to says "3. bit, little <a fraction closer>".

kazinator 11y ago

"A fraction of what it was" is a common idiom, which uses fraction in the ordinary sense. "Fraction" is related to words like "fracture" and "fragment". When you fraction something into pieces, they are always smaller than the whole (barring strange spatial partitionings: Banach-Tarski paradox and all that). Maybe you were playing hooky in grade 3 when the teacher explained that 101/100 is an improper fraction, which can be rewritten as 1 1/100: the whole number 1, combined with a proper fraction. See? "Improper!" Mathematics recognizes a special status for fractions where the numerator has greater magnitude. Also, ever heard of the "integral" and "fractional" parts of a floating-point number? See the ISO C99 function modf, for instance.

irishcoffee 11y ago
An improper comment is still a comment. An improper fraction is still a fraction. What exactly is your point? I'm not sure why you felt the need to be snarky.

dragonwriter 11y ago

Words and phrases have multiple, context-dependent meanings. That's just how natural language works. "a fraction of ..." is commonly used in informal and/or non-technical contexts to mean what would be expressed in a more technical context as "a positive, proper fraction of ..."