• JoeyHarrington@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      Because it’s a stupid, non standard way to say it. I understood it fine but I still thought it was a needless abbreviation.

      • P1nkman@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        K = kilo, which stands for 1000. It’s extremely standard. Saying it’s stupid is like saying $ or π or & or # or % is stupid.

          • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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            5 hours ago

            Okay. I don’t typically get that caught up in the formatting of a number if the meaning is clear. 1k means 1000 in basically every context, and a unit indicator doesn’t make it more confusing to me. Are you likewise baffled by something being written as “1km”?

              • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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                2 hours ago

                A percentage is a dimensionless number, but percent is still a unit. Just think about how you use it. Something can increase by 5 students, or it can increase by 15%.

                Regardless, is “m” standing for a concrete measure and ”%” for a proportional one really the source of since confusion and anger? What about db, or decibel? It’s a measure of the ratio of quantities on a logarithmic scale, and is regularly applied to sound, electricity and other values. Is it as confusing?

    • three@lemm.ee
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      7 hours ago

      It’s unnecessarily obtuse. In my opinion, 1000% would have made for a more impactful headline.

      • ShepherdPie
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        5 hours ago

        Looks like that’s exactly how they wrote it in the original headline. Maybe OP hit the character limit for the title of the post.