Tag Archives: percentages

What We Talk About When We Talk About Performance

Posted on February 4, 2018 by brucedawson

TL;DR – the phrase “90% faster” is interpreted by people in two different ways: 90% less time The speed (ops/sec or km/h) is 90% greater I strongly prefer #2 but due to the ambiguity this phrase should never be used. … Continue reading →

Posted in Math, Performance, Rants | Tagged , , | 20 Comments

Myth: Mythbusters Can Do Math

Posted on June 11, 2012 by brucedawson

Busted! Once again, the Mythbusters have shown that they are careless with basic mathematics. They have shown that they can’t reliably calculate percentages, which makes me worry about all of other math that they do. They described dimpled golf balls … Continue reading →

Posted in Math | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Population Estimation Through Murder Statistics

Posted on March 23, 2012 by brucedawson

For reasons that I no longer remember I found myself looking at the murder rate page on Wikipedia. Looking at some of the patterns in a few of the safer countries I realized that I could estimate their populations based … Continue reading →

Posted in Math | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments