Fraction Bloopers
V. Arnold in an article Innumeracy and the Fires of the Inquisition narrates the following episode:
A flier that was distributed during a forum (the paper has been written in 1998) of the mathematical section of RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences) contained a QA section. The answer given to the question of how much is 21% of 173.3 was 30.4. Arnold laments, "But even 17×2 = 34 which is already greater than 30.4.
Here is a quote from an article Tenure, RIP: What the Vanishing Status Means for the Future of Education in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sunday, July 4, 2010, by Robin Wilson
Over just three decades, the proportion of college instructors who are tenured or on the tenure track plummeted: from 57 percent in 1975 to 31 percent in 2007. The new report is expected to show that that proportion fell even further in 2009, dropping below one-third.
But of course 31% is already below 1/3.
George Vaccaro reports on his grievous encounter with the Verizon billing. According to the contract 1 kb transfer had to be billed at .002¢. Instead they applied a $.oo2 rate. The conversations he had with customer representatives and a manager are plainly hair raising. He had a hard time trying to convince them that there is a difference.
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[...] Nothing more difficult than dividing a few apples between a group of boys. I also found a couple of fractions related bloopers that illustrate the persisting difficulty the populace is having with [...]
July 13th, 2010 at 11:36 am