135 ms·

Contrarily I wish people used 'Nx times' more often, especially for 10x in place of 'an order of magnitude'. It's more welcoming and less pretentious.

bitdivision 4y ago
I'm not sure about using 10x in place of 'an order of magnitude'. An order of magnitude conveys an approximation, whereas 10x is precise.
- IncRnd 4y ago
  10x is literally the difference of an order of magnitude. An order of magnitude is an exponential change of plus or minus 1 in the value of a quantity or unit. The term is generally used in conjunction with power-of-10 scientific notation. Order of magnitude is used to make the size of numbers and measurements of things more intuitive and understandable. It is generally used to provide approximate comparisons between two numbers. For example, if the circumference of the Sun is compared with the circumference of the Earth, the Sun's circumference would be described as many orders of magnitude larger than the Earth's. [1] An order of magnitude is an approximation of the logarithm of a value relative to some contextually understood reference value, usually 10, interpreted as the base of the logarithm and the representative of values of magnitude one. [2] [1] https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/order-of-magnitude https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/order-of-magnit... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_magnitude https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_magnitude
  - bitdivision 4y ago
    Yes, an order of magnitude literally means 10x. But in my experience, in common speech it's often used to convey an approximation. i.e. 'Changing this will decrease performance of that endpoint by an order of magnitude', when it's really somewhere around 10x. If someone said 'decrease performance by 10x' that seems much more concrete to me.
    - IncRnd 4y ago
      Not exactly. An order of magnitude change doesn't always mean 10x in base 10! 15 and 150 differ by an order of magnitude but so do 15 and 180.
  - sebzim4500 4y ago
    Yeah but it's like the difference between someone saying that their height is 1.8m and saying it is 1.800m. They imply different levels of precision.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- gausswho 4y ago
  To a mathematician the 0 signals the author intends less precision, but this is not colloquial use

bitdivision 4y ago

I'm not sure about using 10x in place of 'an order of magnitude'. An order of magnitude conveys an approximation, whereas 10x is precise.

IncRnd 4y ago
10x is literally the difference of an order of magnitude. An order of magnitude is an exponential change of plus or minus 1 in the value of a quantity or unit. The term is generally used in conjunction with power-of-10 scientific notation. Order of magnitude is used to make the size of numbers and measurements of things more intuitive and understandable. It is generally used to provide approximate comparisons between two numbers. For example, if the circumference of the Sun is compared with the circumference of the Earth, the Sun's circumference would be described as many orders of magnitude larger than the Earth's. [1] An order of magnitude is an approximation of the logarithm of a value relative to some contextually understood reference value, usually 10, interpreted as the base of the logarithm and the representative of values of magnitude one. [2] [1] https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/order-of-magnitude https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/order-of-magnit... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_magnitude https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_magnitude
- bitdivision 4y ago
  Yes, an order of magnitude literally means 10x. But in my experience, in common speech it's often used to convey an approximation. i.e. 'Changing this will decrease performance of that endpoint by an order of magnitude', when it's really somewhere around 10x. If someone said 'decrease performance by 10x' that seems much more concrete to me.
  - IncRnd 4y ago
    Not exactly. An order of magnitude change doesn't always mean 10x in base 10! 15 and 150 differ by an order of magnitude but so do 15 and 180.
- sebzim4500 4y ago
  Yeah but it's like the difference between someone saying that their height is 1.8m and saying it is 1.800m. They imply different levels of precision.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
gausswho 4y ago
To a mathematician the 0 signals the author intends less precision, but this is not colloquial use