this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Even
100 - 10% = 90
90 + 10% = 99
Works better than what he did, because that’s how you’d enter it on a standard calculator.
100 - 10/100 ≠ 90
I'm not a fan of this at all and wish people would treat percentages as if they were a unit. x% is x of y per 100 total.
x% = x y~i~ / 100 y~total~
Where y~i~ is the species in question.
My cup is 90% full: My cup contains 90 units~water~ / per 100 units~cup~
This is why I don't like Baker's percentages. I guess it makes sense, because it's still per cent, but they're mixing the meaning used practically everywhere else these days.
50% water for baking isn't 50 units~water~ / per 100 units~dough~, it's 50 units~water~ / per 100 units~flour~. In my mind that means you have 33.33% hydration, not 50%...
Just feels weird to not express that as a ratio. But I guess it's a shorthand that works for them :/
Yes I understand all that but I'm telling you standard calculators literally work that way.
Just launch the calculator app on your phone or computer and give it a try, you'll see.
This is very upsetting
Thanks for the heads-up. I would have been happier never knowing haha
The implied brackets. THE IMPLIED BRACKETS!! The horror.
Thanks for the response kind soul
No worries. Yeah I get that it's a bit weird if you know how to do it properly but it's actually a fairly helpful trick for quickly calculating discounts, which I assume is the indented use. Remember, calculators were designed for lazy business folks who suck at math.
This is exactly how someone who failed HS math would think about the problem, and conveniently, it just works.
Um you can type like that into a calculator? Any answers please specify an actual calculator vs computer.
Sure can.
And yes I was stunned as well when I learned it, because that's not how it's taught in schools. I used to do exactly what the previous commenter did, and then one day I saw some illiterate mouthbreather type it in like that and I was like "nuh-uh, that's not how that works, gimme that thing and let me show you." And I typed it in the long and "correct" way, and whaddayaknow? Same result.
But it makes sense when you think about it, calculators were literally invented for business use (and most business people are notoriously bad at math), and one of the most common uses in business is figuring out how much something should cost after applying a discount.
Like an actual calculator or one on the computer?
It works on both. I tried the calculator apps on iOS and Windows and they both worked that way. And if you still have a regular old digital calculator, it should work on that too.
Most of the ones I've used work that way.
An actual calculator or a computer?
Both? The cheap simple calculators I used decades ago would work if I typed
1then0then0then-then1then0then%. Granted, I have experience with maybe 3 calculators in my life, so I might have just gotten lucky.