this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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[โ€“] Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

30-fold or 30 times? Very big difference between nร—30 vs nร—2^(30)

I guess I'm being pedantic here but I always thought there was a difference between the two. Oh well.

[โ€“] geissi@feddit.de 8 points 2 years ago

30-fold or 30 times

They're synonyms:

fold

suffix
: multiplied by (a specified number) : times

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fold

[โ€“] filister@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

By the way now the title says 45-fold.

And from the article

Some 42,200 people were infected in 2023, compared to 941 during the whole of 2022.

[โ€“] Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 years ago

Thanks for letting me know. I thumbed through the article just to make sure and noticed the number was different, but figured if it changed once it would change multiple times and didn't want to play a pointless game of catch up when my issue was over the use of a term, not the specific number.

I had hoped the WHO would use more scientifically precise language, especially since they're supposed to be a trusted authority on this subject. I think organizations which muddy the waters on terms like this, intentionally or not, end up damaging to scientific literacy for the average person who might not know the difference. It makes things confusing, especially because -fold is used to mean powers of 2 in some contexts and a reader could end up being misinformed if they came across such a headline on said topic in the future.

[โ€“] Skavier@feddit.de 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Do you have a source for that? I looked at the Etymologie and it seems to be from old germanic languages. I am skeptical that old germanic people wold know the difference between Multiplication and 2 power x.