Basic Math Proficiency (or Lack There-of)

[FelixEstrella]

Ummmm, did I make a mistake somewhere?

Yes. 100x off to be precise.

[MarkD]

I can almost (note the word almost) sympathize with Netpackrat's "victims", I don't remember the last time I saw a $2 bill (except the one I have in my jewelry box, that my Dad carried in his wallet for good luck).

In particular, a $2 bill was usually carried for luck at gambling. The rarity of the bill symbolized winning against long odds. That's been genericized over the years to just plain good luck.

(Random trivia courtesy of my weird reading habits... )

Dad was never a gambler (except the time he won $1,600 at poker on a troop ship during W.W. II, and hoped he hadn't just used up all his luck). He refered to his $2 bill as his "whorehouse bill" (and I make no further comment except to point out that he carried that bill for as long as I can remember, and had it ever disappeared Mom would have disappeared him, or at least parts of him).

[Rod]

Ummmm, did I make a mistake somewhere?

Yes. 100x off to be precise.

Nope, look at it this way, $1.0825, that's one dollar and 8 and a quarter cents. The tax in El Paso is .0825 on a dollar.

[princewally]

Ummmm, did I make a mistake somewhere?

Yes. 100x off to be precise.

Nope, look at it this way, $1.0825, that's one dollar and 8 and a quarter cents. The tax in El Paso is .0825 on a dollar.

Yes, but .0825 cents is not 8 1/4 cents.

[Rich]

Semantics anyone?

Tax rate of .0825 percent on the dollar is 8 1/4 cents.

Tax rate of .0825 cents on the dollar is not.

I should know better than to get involved in theological discussions like this, but here I am anyway.

[Rod]

Okay, I give up, you win, grandson's kept me awake the last two nights.

[Steamforger]

I'm not in the store to commiserate with you about your social status, and if my you can't make change, then what exactly *can* you do?

If this was as simple as change, it's doubtful you would care about the manner in which change was made as long as that change was correct. Going somewhere to buy something when in a hurry, as you've described, and administering an ad hoc math test designed to "fuck with" the person on the other side of the counter seems like a piss poor way for everybody to do business.

But hey, if it makes you feel even a little better about yourself, go on ahead. You probably don't know the guy behind the counter and the world needs whipping boys too.

[SeekHer]

Rod, you're correct!

.0825 is 8¼% which would make the tax to be $55.6875 or $55.69...

I figure it out by 67 x 8 = 536
¼ of 67 is 16.75
approx so I don't lose my cool before a cashier is 552.75 so quickly in my head I'm out by $55.69 - 55.28 = .41...
If I can do it in my head why can't the damn cashier...too much reliance on calculators and smart cash registers...

Minor point of trivia:
Do you know why so many prices are set at .95, .98 in retail stores?

Macy's, in New York, started it back in the late 1800s so that the cashiers couldn't steal from them...
If the price is $1.00, the customer would give it to them and the cashier would just pocket it...if the price was $0.95 the customer would have to get a nickle back, meant the cashier had to open the till to make change, and the transaction was added into the daily total...$.05 or 5¢ (which symbol you seldom see now-a-days) bought a lunch with 2 beers--
Actually it bought 2 beers and the lunch was free and they'd still have one cent left over...

[Jered]

Okay, I give up, you win, grandson's kept me awake the last two nights.

You put the decimal point in the wrong spot. I think what you meant is 8.25 cents per dollar, or a tax rate of 8.25 percent. A tax rate of .0825 cents means that the tax is eight hundred twenty-five ten thousandths of a cent.

[308Mike]

Ummmm, did I make a mistake somewhere? .0825 cents on a dollar is 8 and a 1/4 cents.

Yes, you did make a mistake. We understand that .0825 of a dollar is 8 & 1/4 cents, but .0825 OF A CENT (considering a cent IS $.01 of a dollar or 1 [per]cent) is 8.25% of a CENT is $.000825 or less than 1/10 of a penny.

The mistake was not with your math, it's the terminology you used. Switching back and forth between dollars and cents screwed it up (easy to do when you're tired). Keeping it all based in values of a dollar would have kept everything consistent.

8.25% of a dollar is not the same as 8.25% of a penny (cent). It's the terms that got you messed up.