this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Funny: Home of the Haha

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[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Just noticed if you also decrease something by 10%, then increase by 10%, you also get a net loss of 1. Math itself is biased towards loss.

Anyone convinced in the malevolent creator theory yet?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Math isn't biased. Flawed reasoning is. For x ≠ 0

(1 + x)(1 − x) = 1 − x² < 1

The correct way to cancel scaling by a proportion is its reciprocal, ie, for x ≠ 0

x ∙ ¹⁄ₓ = 1

A 10% decrease is ⁹⁄₁₀

100% − 10% = 90% = ⁹⁄₁₀

Its reciprocal is ¹⁰⁄₉, a ¹⁄₉ = 11¹⁄₉% increase

1 / (100% − 10%) = ¹⁰⁄₉ = 100% + 11¹⁄₉%

We make it complicated by stating increase/decrease & percent instead of simple scaling factors. The western world has a weird 💯 fetish almost as funny as ancient mesopotamians and the number 60.

In general, for proportional change x, the proportional change y to cancel it is the solution of

(1 + x)(1 + y) = 1
y = (1 + x)⁻¹ − 1

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Increase by 10 then decrease by 10. Same problem. Math is lossy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Adding flat numbers is different from adding a percent.