5 Times Less
I *try* to fight my pedantry, but often fail. My latest gripe is the use of phrases such as "Five times less". I assume they mean a fifth as much, but that is NOT what five times less really means. Let's take another example :
25% less.
That is the same as "three quarters as much". I argue that this could also be worded (awkwardly) as 0.25 times less. I.e. we start with 100% and take off 25%. Note that "less" means "take off / take away". It does NOT mean divide.
So what does "five times less" really mean? By the same logic, we TAKE OFF 5 lots of the original. i.e. the answer is -4 times the original value.
I think there are two factors causing this error. 1. A fear of fractions. 2. Not noticing that "less" means "subtract" and "more" means "addition".
Notice that "five times more" and "five times" are NOT the same. "five times more" is the same as "six times". If you disagree, you might find it easier to see your error by noticing the difference between "25% more" and "25%". Not that 25% can be replace by "a quarter", and now you can see that "a quarter more" and "a quarter" are different.