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Why do people keep getting this wrong‽

Stand-up Maths · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Recreational & visual mathMath & theory (other)

What it is

Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths explains why people keep making the same mistake with millions and billions, using a Bloomberg cash calculator example. He looks at the unit slip behind the repeated arithmetic error.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN links it to explain why people repeatedly get large-number arithmetic wrong in discussions of money and mental math.

  • 1 people recommended it
  • 1 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Here's a great explanation of what's probably happening”

    Explains the units mistake in mental arithmetic with millions

    christiangenco, 2022-02 · Recommendation · in “What use is mental math in 2022?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: mathematics, millions and billions, mental math, numeracy, matt parker

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