Jack Applin sends this in: “In the world of Rabbits Against Magic, dimes are worth 5¢. I suppose that nickels are worth 10¢? Unfortunately, since the word “dime” comes from “one-tenth”, this means that a dollar is worth 50¢. Dear oh dear. On the other hand, he did correctly say “400% increase”, as opposed to the common but incorrect “500% increase”, so that’s worth something.”
CIDU is a non-political space. Please confine comments to the odd math shown, rather than the particular politician mentioned in the last panel.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Well, the next highest coin is actually a nickel, which is correctly a 400% increase. I suspect the writer just had a brain fart.
I join with Jack A in getting bothered by the widespread mishandling of values that are some multiple of a base. And then, there are all sorts of mischief when someone tries to express growth of a value by using a percentage expression in many hundreds. I would rather hear that something is fifty times what it used to be rather than 4,900 percent increase; or the actually incorrect “5000 percent increase”.
Avoiding explicit politics, there have been certain public figures (well, one public figure) promising to reduce certain expenses by “400, 500 percent” so this maybe refers to that individual’s dubious math skills.
I did hear someone speculating on weather, and saying certain conditions could “make it feel twice as cold!”. Even “twice as hot” is not problem-free, as you would need to specify the scale and zero-point; but “twice as cold” still doesn’t work unless you claim that’s the same as “half as hot”.
… and then there the awkward use of “decimate”.
I’ve actually seen some claim to the effect of some magical improvement leading to a 300% reduction of so-and-so or some such.
There was a radio commercial for a surgical clinic which said that they reduced the recovery time from surgery by 200%.
So I guess that means something like this: Under the old kind of surgery, you might have to spend two days in the hospital recovering after your surgery. If they had reduced that by 100%, then you would be able to leave immediately after your surgery. But since they reduced the recovery time by 200%, you can now leave two days before your surgery.
@Jonesy: I’m afraid I’ve given up on that one, chalked it up to language evolution. But I do still notice it EVERY TIME.
Well, we know that right now drug prices are coming down by 400%, 200%, 600%, numbers that nobody’s ever seen before.
But pennies won’t disappear for a long while. They’ll still be in use for some time.
I don’t really have a problem with “twice as cold”, although I realize it isn’t quantifiable. There are lots of concepts, phrases and idioms that are like that. They convey a concept, not a measurement. As an example of the literally hundreds of these (there might be more), “head over heals” meaning tumbling or flipped around. My default position is head over heals.
And we could quantify in a way to make “twice as cold” accurate ; though it is suitably artificial at the start.
Let’s pick a standard “comfort point”, say around 65F or 18C. Now, yesterday was kinda cold, it was 45F. (So it was cold by 20 F degrees.) Now today’s forecast is for 25F. That’s “cold by” 40 degrees, thus twice as cold as yesterday!
Mitch4 (4): Overthinking it, I suppose that “twice as hot” would have to use Kelvin, to make it twice as many degrees. It’s like charts that show only the upper part with all the volatility, making the change look much greater than it really is.
TedD (11): Does “head over heals” describe mental control over the immune system?
Lemon is a Brit so he may have gotten the nickel and dime mixed up.
How did we ever get by in 1950, when the penny was the lowest-denomination coin but had more purchasing power than today’s dime?
And speaking of head over heels (as TedD noted) …
In Edgar Allen Poe’s works you find “heels over head”, as in “I was heels over head in love with her.” I guess “head over heels” trips off the tongue better, like “How many of there are you?” just seems to work better than “How many of you are there?” even though it’s nonsense.
And there’s a recording of “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” in which the singer sings “For every bear that ever was there will gather there for certain because…” instead of “For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain because…” I think the original makes more sense, and it has the internal rhyme, but it can be a little awkward to sing.
Well, both versions have an internal rhyme, I guess.
When I was a kid one could actually buy something for a penny. (I am guessing same for some of you also – please don’t say I am the oldest one here.) A penny in a gum machine bought a piece of gum. A penny in a charm dispensing machine would give one a plastic charm.
A nickel would buy better stuff than a penny, a dime better same, a quarter – harder for a kid to come by, would buy even better stuff. A dollar bill was a fortune.
My parents being accountants taught me the value of a penny. I had a box – forget what the first one was, but by the time I was in second grade the box being used was my first grade lunch box. I got a weekly allowance starting at that penny rate. I would put pennies (and if lucky to get a larger coin those also) in the box to save up for things I wanted. Mom made me a little bank book (by hand, no computers to print them back then). I would give her the penny, nickel, whatever and she would make an entry in my “bank book”. Eventually the money was transferred to a real bank account and so on. I have joked with Robert that part of our house was paid for with those pennies and the interest they accumulated.