The Denver Post, today, on its editorial page, introduced the idea that the Colorado Budget was a problem. As part of the Op-Ed, they used an example about how Amendment 23 to the Colorado constitution wreaks havoc on the budget. But the example they gave is totally from left field. It exemplifies the idea that math is foreign to too many people, and that mathematical mistakes go unquestioned because too many people haven't a clue about bad computations and bad conclusions.
here's the Link to the op-ed
here's my Letter to the editor :
I really, really hope I'm not the only one to take issue with the Monday editorial about the budget. Your "Illustration" was woefully wrong on what is an extremely simple 6th grade percentage problem. And as my teachers used to say, "read the entire question first". If you two buy $10 dinners, and choose a $4 tip for the two of you, your dinner costs $12 (24/2) out of pocket. If you wind up paying $13, that is an 8.3 percent increase (1/12), not anywhere near 30%. If, the next time in similiar circumstances you pay $15 instead of the normal $12 to lunch with your friend, that's a 25% increase (3/12), not 50%. You're using Fox News math.
So,
a) I suggest you get a 6th grader to check your math next time,
b) how many copy editors did this go through before being printed on the Op-Ed page of a major newspaper? and
c) let's hope the legislature is better at math and percentages than the Denver Post editorial board.
Now, I used to do advanced math and calculus and stuff, and did differential equations in my head, but this is pathetic. When I was ten my local grocer (yes, there were local grocers before there were supermarkets) could just take all the stuff you piled on the counter and add it up in his head and tell you that you owed $2.77. and if you didn't have cash in your pockets, he would just add it to your families' bill.
But to have a national newspaper publish, throughout a 1000 mile region such a lame example of elementary math ? Well, I'm just stumped about how this came to happen.
Bear in mind that this is the same newspaper that endorsed GW Bush in 2004 by a fiat from Wm. Dean Singleton the publisher (and chairman of the AP board), so it's not like they are independent thinkers there.
I've always encouraged my kids to do reasonable tests and a check of significant figures, That is, see if the answer is in the realm of possible answers and that the magnitude of the answer makes sense.
Publishing this on a national scale just shows you how low the print industry has sunk. They don't even have staff that can detect a sixth-grade math error.