A lesson on percentages

In a very technical way, CTV is correct. That is if you consider .34% a smaller percentage. However most people round things up or down to the nearest whole number when working with percentages. But if you want to spin things why bother with trite details? A comment by Daryl over at SDA. Looks like the staff over at CTV want to play number games.

This zinger from the CTV web site:

"The size of cabinet has increased from 27 to 32 positions, with a smaller percentage of women on the team."

I tried to use my slide rule but couldn't tell the difference. Went back to using a calculator to determine that the percentage change in women went from 6/27=22.22% to 7/32=21.88%. So rounding, that would be a change from 22% to 22%.

Clearly this is a big news story and should have dominated the day's events.

Posted by: Daryl at January 4, 2007 09:26 PM

Maybe this will help them to learn a bit... Statistics Help for Journalists.

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I want one!

Although most car enthusiasts would think I'm nuts.... I want to get a 1994 Vauxhall Cavalier. Why you might ask? Well, not only are they cheap, well under $2000.00 Canadian plus shipping of course. That's not the main reason though. What if I told you, for that cheap price you could own a world record breaking speed demon! Yes, this car is faster than the 2005 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 that tops out at a mere 253.2 mph. One of these little, not so pretty Vauxhall Cavaliers has been clocked in Newport, Gwent, Wales doing 420 MPH in a 30 MPH zone! I'm not making this up. This is one fast TAXI! Or perhaps the photo radar was faulty? Typo? What do you think?

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