"Four times less" Topic
4 Posts
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| Last Hussar | 05 Aug 2012 1:12 p.m. PST |
Saw this phrase in a Sports Illustrated artical about the Opening ceremony- Boyle spent 'four times less' than the Chinese. Does this mean a quarter? (This is a genuine question – used to 'times' meaning a multiple) |
Streitax  | 05 Aug 2012 2:58 p.m. PST |
I suppose that is what it is suppoded to mean, but literally it means they 'made' 3 times as much as the Chinese spent. (X -4*X = -3X). |
| goragrad | 06 Aug 2012 10:06 a.m. PST |
One would presume that that was the intent. |
| Austin Rob | 24 Sep 2012 9:10 p.m. PST |
I just saw a commercial where they used this. I'm seeing it more and more. As far as I can tell, it really is meaningless. Maybe various marketing sorts figure we can't understand fractions or percentages. |
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