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!
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.
ReplyDeleteEustolia Nitta