• aebletrae [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      12·
      2 months ago

      But, but… percentages are already fractions. Per cent = “out of a hundred”.

      The % symbol even looks like a fraction to remind everyone.

      Now, simplifying fractions from 90/100 to 9/10—in spite of it literally being removing a zero from each side—does seem to cause some real problems.

        • aebletrae [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          How are you at thinking about years, decades, and centuries?

          If we take it step by step:—

          • 10 years of a century is ten years out of a hundred.
          • 10% is ten out of a hundred.
          • So 10 years is 10% of a century.

           

          Looking at the same thing another way:—

          • 10 years is a also a decade.
          • There are 10 decades in a century.
          • So one decade is one tenth (1/10) of a century.

           

          Bringing in the comparison from earlier:—

          • 90% of a century is 90 years, or 9 decades.
          • 9 decades is nine tenths (9/10) of a century.
          • 110% of a century is 110 years, or 11 decades.
          • 11 decades is eleven tenths (11/10) of a century.

           

          Are these familiar enough to make sense as a parallel, or just further irrelevant confusion?

          • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            5·
            2 months ago

            How are you at thinking about years, decades, and centuries?

            not a lot, usually

            It’s not like I don’t get the train of thought here, it just doesn’t come intuitive

      • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        But, but… percentages are already fractions. Per cent = “out of a hundred”.

        You are correct. It’s more like leaving off the Unit from a number, with that causing an incorrect conversion somewhere else.

    • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      I finally learned to convert fractions and imperial vs metric by selling drugs and working retail lol.

      For example I can tell you that one OZ = 0.625 0.0625* LB off the dome but don’t ask me to do calculus.