The biggest I’ve seen in a published source in the wild is an 80-fold error in a reported distance, which I think came from a series of at least three unit conversions and area/length misinterpretations.

https://explainxkcd.com/3065/

  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    No need to add the comma if you say it properly, feet squared are not squared feet, quantifier (3) adjective (square) noun (feet) vs quantifier (3) noun (square) affective (feet), it’s the order of operations in the English language, one is quantifying the distance of the edge, while the other is quantifying how many individual edges (squares) of set distance (feet) you have.

    I am not writing it with any discrepancy, though I do get tripped up when talking about it, but generally nobody calls anyone on it, except that’s when expensive projects go boom sometimes.

    Read out loud 3sqft and 3’^2,

    First one: 3 square feet

    Second one: 3 feet (foot? If you’re pedantic) squared (square if you’re a pedant)

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        Person behind this account, at this point you’re being deliberately dense.

        Find something better to do with your time

        Those are the exact same thing because they are the exact same thing.

        I understand English is difficult to parse, I hope you’ll get there some day.

        I guess you’re the person who this comic is written with thoughts of

        Maybe when you’re buying real estate or property some day it’ll click for you, in the mean time please ask for help before writing units in scientific papers, or interpreting those papers, and definitely don’t try to spread the results of those papers to others, lest we end up with world consuming insects.

        • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          Highly ironic that you’re telling me to find something better to do with my time.

          Get a grip, bud.

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        Did you not notice the unit modifier in the my second phrase???

        Let me spell it out for you.

        3 (three) ’ (feet) ^2 (squared)

        You’d have me repeating myself like a monkey, which is, NINE.

        3 (three) sq (square) ft (feet) is THREE.

        but I suspect you’ll disagree at at this point I’ll move on, my only sadness is there was a person out there who agreed with your original argument that they were the same.

              • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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                7 days ago

                Okay,

                There’s this thing called the order of operations

                And seeing as how you don’t know about it, it makes sense that you won’t know the difference between square miles and miles squared.

                Please check out a junior high school math text book before bothering to argue on the Internet.

                Edit i see where you’ve made the mistake,

                If it’s (3+4)^2 then you’ve failed to combine like units, something they teach you about in kindergarten.

                • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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                  7 days ago

                  No, I was clearly thinking of parentheses when I wrote it, so you should have said them when you said it.

                  Take your meds, Donnie.

                  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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                    7 days ago

                    Please read my comment again about combining like units you…

                    Nope that’s all you get out of me until you remember apples and oranges

                  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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                    7 days ago

                    Johnny has 3 and 4, Billy wants 2, johnny gave Billy two but billy wanted apples and Johnny only had dollars and bullets,

                    Fortunately Johnny gave Billy the two bullets so Billy wouldn’t have to live in an idiotic world without labeled data

                    Go back to grade school or pull your head out of your ass, you’ve either been deprived of an education or you’re deliberately ignoring it to bait me into wasting my time teaching you fundamental mathematics.