2M views · Mar 24, 2020 · 12:49 · 1 HN recommender · 4 mentions · discussed 2020–2025
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths explains why people keep making the same mistake with millions and billions, using a Bloomberg cash calculator example. He looks at the unit slip behind the repeated arithmetic error.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN links it to explain why people repeatedly get large-number arithmetic wrong in discussions of money and mental math.
“Here's a great explanation of what's probably happening”HN comment, 2022
“Here's a great explanation of what's probably happening”
Explains the units mistake in mental arithmetic with millions
This mistake is so interesting to me. Here's a great explanation of what's probably happening: this video tl;dr: mentally we take off "millions" as a unit, do the calculation, then add "millions" back on. This works for addition, subtraction, and inequality but fails for multiplication and division.
“Matt Parker made a video that tries to explain how people keep getting this basic arithmetic completely wrong.”
Explains why people keep getting million/billion arithmetic wrong
Matt Parker made a video that tries to explain how people keep getting this basic arithmetic completely wrong. this video
“there is a reason why people keep making it, as Matt Parker discusses”
Explains why people repeatedly make this math error
I'm not sure that there's a name for that kind of maths error, but there is a reason why people keep making it, as Matt Parker discusses: this video .
Reminds me of this classic: link “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over.” this video
