Why do people keep getting this wrong‽ on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2020–2025.
explainer · evergreen
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths explains why people keep making the same mistake with millions and billions, using a Bloomberg cash calculator example. He looks at the unit slip behind the repeated arithmetic error.
HN links it to explain why people repeatedly get large-number arithmetic wrong in discussions of money and mental math.
“Here's a great explanation of what's probably happening”
4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
This mistake is so interesting to me. Here's a great explanation of what's probably happening: ▶ this video tl;dr: mentally we take off "millions" as a unit, do the calculation, then add "millions" back on. This works for addition, subtraction, and inequality but fails for multiplication and division.
in “What use is mental math in 2022?” · View on HN
Reminds me of this classic: [link] “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over.” ▶ this video
in “Very Wrong Math” · View on HN
I'm not sure that there's a name for that kind of maths error, but there is a reason why people keep making it, as Matt Parker discusses: ▶ this video .
in “Edinburgh couple are handed £17K bill by Tesla as they 'drove in rain'” · View on HN
Matt Parker made a video that tries to explain how people keep getting this basic arithmetic completely wrong. ▶ this video
in “Fed should pay every American, let hedge funds and billionaires ‘get wiped out’” · View on HN