Tuesday, April 2, 2013

News Headline Fail!

It amazes me how often "journalists" fail at basic math.  A perfect example of this was the lead headline in a major online news provider yesterday morning.  The headline stated:

"Some salaries doubled, others rose by 98 percent!"

The headline is referring to the increase in salary of campaign staffers for the remaining couple of months of a congressperson's term following an election.  Let me ignore the politics of this and focus on the math.

It's a common misconception that if your salary doubles that your salary increases by 50%.  This is very bad math and simply not true!!!

Let's assume my salary is $100,000 (I wish!) for easy math and let's say it increases by 50%.  50% of $100,000 is $50,000.  Therefore my new salary is $150,000.

If I double my $100,000 salary, my new salary becomes $200,000.  If my $100,000 salary increases by 98%, my new salary is $198,000, a mere $2,000 less than when my salary was doubled.  Thus the headline makes no sense whatsoever.  Why point out that some double, but others increase by 98%!?!?!?!  Doubling and 98% are basically the same increase in salary.  My only conclusion is that the editor of this online news provider failed at basic math.  Not long after I read the article, the headline was replaced with a different headline that contained no numbers.  Someone must have caught the error.

How does this relate to my daughters?  As they go through school, I will continue to stress the importance of math.  Even if they enter a non-math related field, math will eventually be used in some way and it's important to not make a fool of yourself in front of potentially millions of people!

1 comment:

  1. Math is everywhere, as what my elementary math teacher told us -- his students. And you wouldn’t be able to do advanced calculations unless you have a very good foundation in basic math. I apply math when budgeting my salary, even in my cooking -- with all the measurements of the ingredients.

    Eustolia Nitta

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