New Pet Hate
Posted: 15 Oct 2008, 17:25Something that I find somewhat irritating that I keep seeing more and more often.
The phrase 'x times less' as in 'The price of an airfare today is 4 times less than 20 years ago.'
Surely 1 times less = 0 so 4 times less is a negative number. In order for this to make any sense you need to know the original figure and then know that it is 25% of the result.
4 times more = OK, 25% more = OK, 25% less = OK, .25 less = OK but surely 4 times less is nonsense.
Rant over
FM
The phrase 'x times less' as in 'The price of an airfare today is 4 times less than 20 years ago.'
Surely 1 times less = 0 so 4 times less is a negative number. In order for this to make any sense you need to know the original figure and then know that it is 25% of the result.
4 times more = OK, 25% more = OK, 25% less = OK, .25 less = OK but surely 4 times less is nonsense.
Rant over
FM