bphlpt Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 I know that mathematicians have their own specialized terminology, I'm only an engineer after all, but anytime I see any kind of phrase that uses a percentage larger than 100, which in my mind means all of whatever they are trying to measure, coupled with terms like "less", "shorten", "decrease", or any other term that implies getting smaller in any way whatsoever, it just makes no logical sense to me. It's as if whoever wrote that is just trying to get the audience's attention with a huge number to make some kind of point, so they'll think "Wow! That's impressive!", or shocking, disgraceful, or whatever other emotion they are trying to engender. A bigger number has more of an impact than a smaller one, right? "300% more!" sounds bigger than "3 times larger!", doesn't it? That's fine until things are getting smaller. They try to use the same effect in the other direction, and to me it just sounds wrong. Cheers and Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 BTW, I seem to remember vaguely a scene featuring an underflowing drinking-glass in one of the Matrix movies... Is there really one such scene or have I just dreamt it? This was not a rhetorical question... do any of y'all remember a scene featuring a self-filling empty glass in one of the Matrix movies, and can perhaps tell me in which of them does it appear, or whether I've just dreamt it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcinwwl Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Ehm... Isn't it too simple answer, if I say it decreased by 3000% of the outcome, so at the end we have ~3.23% of the input, and the journalist is just incapable of expressing himself properly?Because we decrease input 3100% to output 100% (3100% - 3000%), and thus if we turn that and input is 100 we divide it by 31, and decrease by ~96.7 Just a case of point of view :>I know that something like this was said previously, but well hidden amongst other phrases Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 IMHO @bphlpt and @alacran got it right: the guy being quoted in the OP was trying to make his statement sound even more impressive, although to our minds he ended up just sounding silly. If you decrease something by 100%, you have nothing -- zero -- left of it. You can't decrease something by 3000% because you can't decrease it by more than what there is of it. (Note to @dencorso: my DVR is set to record The Matrix in a couple of days. I'll let you know if I see the scene that you have in mind. ) --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 BTW, I seem to remember vaguely a scene featuring an underflowing drinking-glass in one of the Matrix movies... Is there really one such scene or have I just dreamt it? This was not a rhetorical question... do any of y'all remember a scene featuring a self-filling empty glass in one of the Matrix movies, and can perhaps tell me in which of them does it appear, or whether I've just dreamt it? OK, I went through the original Matrix movie tonight. There were several scenes where there was a glass on a table or in somebody's hand, but none where the glass filled itself or anything unusual happened relating to the glass. Hopefully it's not a case where the channel edited the scene out or anything like that! Maybe it's in one of the sequels. I'll keep looking... --JorgeA 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Thanks, JorgeA. You rock! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROTS Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 (edited) About the Matrix and medical technology. Your heart and pulse rate inside an hospital is measured via microscopic electrical pulses. The idea that the human body gives off a small amount of electricity. So think of it like that OP. The wait times being decreased is now unmeasurable. It is like how a person with diabetes might have a 600 as there blood sugar, while I have 40. But after it hits 300 it becomes unreadable by the machine. So the amount of time is unmeasurable with the current charts. Thinking about the Matrix/Terminator if you could simply power a device with your finger tips. Another idea is that of "Outer Limits" Where machines rule the planet and they look like us. But these machines are moving very slow compared to us, and calculate very slow compared to people. The machines might live like us, or look like us but there ability to be like us is very small due to the usage of energy and calculations of the human brain. The wait times are so small they need new charts Edited October 20, 2015 by ROTS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted November 15, 2015 Author Share Posted November 15, 2015 BTW, I seem to remember vaguely a scene featuring an underflowing drinking-glass in one of the Matrix movies... Is there really one such scene or have I just dreamt it? This was not a rhetorical question... do any of y'all remember a scene featuring a self-filling empty glass in one of the Matrix movies, and can perhaps tell me in which of them does it appear, or whether I've just dreamt it? OK, I went through the original Matrix movie tonight. There were several scenes where there was a glass on a table or in somebody's hand, but none where the glass filled itself or anything unusual happened relating to the glass. Hopefully it's not a case where the channel edited the scene out or anything like that! Maybe it's in one of the sequels. I'll keep looking... --JorgeA Following up: The two Matrix sequels (Reloaded and Revolutions) played on cable this week. I just finished fast-forwarding through them (but not so fast that I couldn't tell what was going on). Any time I saw a scene with any kind of glass or container for liquids in it, I slowed down to normal speed. Sorry to say, I didn't see anything like what you describe. Now, it's possible that the cable channel (AMC) edited the movies for time and the scene you have in mind got cut. but I'm thinking that it may be from a different film altogether. Hope this helps! --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 It sure does! While I have a clear recollection of the underflowing glass scene, it has to be part of another film or TV series. But, right now, I'm clueless as to which it may have been... but I'm sure sooner or later I'll stumble upon it again! Thanks again Jorge, you do rock! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelsenellenelvian Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 There's one on Futurama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 There's one on Futurama Hey, thanks, man! I didn't know that! So I went looking to a clip of it, but didn't yet find any (@jaclaz: could you please give it a go?).Then again, I did find this, which illustrates reasonably an underflow, although a non-bubly and colorless liquid, preferably water (vodka, grappa, gin or sake would also do fine) might be best. Now physics remains physics... look how a real fill-from-the-bottom looks like (more noticiably at the start)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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