| Thanks for posting the first few links from using Google. Here are some other links from Google that explains why your vociferous insistence is wrong. http://www.crackssat.com/isee/word-problems/question-250-ans... https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/8680/how-much-ex... https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/increase-by-a-factor... https://books.google.com/books?id=wDKLXdzQL5AC&pg=PA182&lpg=... http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2010/05/the_wall_street.... In addition to the short explanation in the last link, some of the comments on that page may help shed light, such as: I'm a college student, and for the past few years I've been an SAT
tutor to pay the bills. 95% of my students do not know how to
calculate percentage change. I spend hours teaching kids this.
They usually start to get it after working with the formula several
times, and then I show them this:
for any number "n"
100% increase = n*2 = double
200% increase = n*3 = triple
300% increase = n*4 = quadruple
...
x*100% increase = n*(x+1)
When math is being discussed, even simple math, I'm going to go with the mathematical explanation not the arguments of populism. That's especially true for this case, where people are corrected in school and out of school constantly for the mistake you are promulgating. |
You seem to be stuck on the translation here. These are two different phrases with different meanings. Yes, they both refer to increases. Yes, they both can be interpreted as multiplications on the original term. No, they are not the same. You found exactly one case which does not use the same verbage and specifically points to percentages. I don't know how else to say that different phrases in English carry different meanings. You can't just say "a factor of X" is equivalent to "X00%". This just is not understood to be true. Even the GMAT and GRE present questions in this way with the understanding that "a factor of X" means to multiply by X.
I'm not going to continue to explain this to you. There's really nothing more to be said. If you attempt to solve problems presented in the format of "increased by a factor of X" such that X is not presented as a percentage, you will be marked as incorrect more often than not.
I'm not even explicitly arguing for a populism argument. I'm stating that the problem is presented in a different format than you are claiming it to be.