this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Chapotraphouse
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The number of times I’ve had to explain to people that having something decrease by 50% and then increase by 50% still results in a decrease (and still not had people understand) makes this entirely unsurprising.
The average American reads at below a 6th grade level. I don't know the average level of math skills. About second grade?
if i was reading at a college level in the 6th grade does that mean I'm like 20 grades higher than the average american???
I'll have to read even less to make up for this, smh my head
If you ever visit Texas you better not show off yer book learnin' because it might even be a capital offense.
I thought it was only a capital offense in DC.
I think they actually hang you for it in Texas.
I consider myself "bad at math" and even I understand that. Wtf is happening??
Strike the evil commie parts and I have heard this word for word.
“If you’re talking about 50% of the original value in both cases, yes, but not when you’re talking about a decrease followed by an increase”
And I’ve solidly lost them.
Percentages are multiplicative, not addative, so if you go down 50 and then up 50 (or vice versa) you end up at 75% of the original value.
Equation would be original value * (1 + % ÷ 100)
So if we start with 1, 1 * (1-50/100) = .5 .5 * (1+50/100) =.75
In simplified fractions, 1 * 1/2 * 3/2= 3/4
I know. Far too many people I’ve had exactly this conversation with don’t seem to be able to grasp that, though, no matter how I present it to them.
(1-p)*(1+p) = 1 - p^2^ < 1
Ridiculous. This is why nobody likes math lmao. It makes intuitive sense you don't need some goofy ass formula.
If I have 100 and reduce it by 50% i have 50. Now if i increase the 50 by 50% what is it? 75. Why? Cause 50% of 50 is 25. 50 +25 equals 75. Your formula is exactly why i fuckin hate math lmao. Today we're going to learn this concept but lets not look at it in real world terms but as an overwhelming mess of letters and numbers. Awesome. It can't be that every math teacher I had was bad. There has to be better ways to teach math.
Your explanation is harder to understand than my formula.
It’s really not
how do people not get 1*.5 = 0.5 and then 0.5*1.5= 0.75 YOU JUST SHOW THEM THE NUMBERS
I usually use 100 instead of 1 so that the only decimals are the percentages
yeah but my thinking is if you're explaining to people who don't think so good then it's like, okay, you have one of a thing, you make half of that. Then, you make half again more than that, and, see, half of a half is only a quarter, so, you only have three quarters once you add it all together
then i bang some rocks together to establish dominance
idk i'm drunk but also so many people smoke weed they'd probably get it
Yep that's how I'd explain it too, maybe with a cup of water so they can see it doesn't get back to the same level when adding 50% of the remaining 50%
do it with a pizza (because burgers are more difficult to slice)
imagine a pizza, then slice etcetc
Fair, but I'm more likely to have a cup and water on hand than a pizza
That's on you
But if it goes down by 50 and then up by 50 it's still the same, even in evil commie foreign "%" dollars.
Wouldn't surprise me if % were invented to scam people. Why wouldn't you just use decimals or fractions for everything.
There I also no non-scam reason why we suddenly use +/- when it comes to percents rather than multiplication. There is also multiple ways how multiple percentages are combined in practice, it's not consistent.
Percents are decimals…. You just multiply them not add them and people are stupid.
It's a good awful notation for relative change.