… except he *defines* the phrase “X% times faster” but then *uses* the
phrase “100% faster” and not “100% times faster”.
I’m not entirely sure “X% times faster” is a good choice. What is “10% times
faster” supposed to mean? It certainly *doesnt* mean “10% faster”, nor does
it mean “1/10th times faster”.
Aha. Humpty Dumpty (the famous quote on what words mean) is notenough for this discussion. We need the White Knight too (the nicedistinctions on what the song is, what it is called, what its title is,and what the title of the song is called).Moreover, didn't Lewis Carroll in his alter ego as C.L.Dodgson, thateristic algebraist and logician, say something about precisely thetopic of "times faster" and "times as fast as"?
Indeed, as Carroll was pointing out, English is a very ambiguous language, hence the need for precision and clarity in definitions. I’m not sure the “X% times faster” definition would qualify for either in this case.
“X% times faster” is awfully close to the mis-use of that horrible phrase “rate of speed”, which is erroneously used (particularly by law enforcement in the US for some reason) as a more refined way to say “speed” when in fact it means acceleration (“speed” being “rate of change of position” and “rate of speed” thus either being tautology or “rate of rate of change of position”).
—Tim |
