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A comment on MIT proposes to Reinvent the 737 for 70% greater fuel efficiency.

Re:MIT proposes to Reinvent the 737 for 70% greater fuel eff... by tailrecursion on Wednesday October 06, 2010 @07:09PM (#1766229)
The article claims a 70% fuel efficiency increase, and another quoted part claims a 70% reduction in fuel use. Which is it?
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Re:MIT proposes to Reinvent the 737 for 70% greater fuel eff... by wlievens on Thursday October 07, 2010 @05:25AM (#1767291)
Journalists typically don't "get" percentages, so they just throw them around and hope it's correct.

Other examples:

"Crime rate drops with 8%!" ... compared to what and when?

"Inflation now 2% higher" ... does that mean inflation went from 1% to 1.02% or to 3%?

The mere notion that you can express change of a metric (expressed as percentage), as a percentage would probably destroy the average journalist's brain.

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