The Rate Increased By A Factor Of Ten - WordReference Forums
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- Thread starter Thread starter roniy
- Start date Start date Dec 17, 2005
roniy
Senior Member
Brooklyn NY Hebrew "The rate increased by a factor of ten" I understand the usage of "factor" in math for example : the factors of 10 are 2,5 and 10 . but how does it work in the example I gave. Any one can give an example with numbers, please ? Thanks.
majlo
Banned
Polish I understand it this way that it was multiplied by ten. E.g. 5 rose by a factor of 5 = 25. So, if, for instance, the rate, say, of unemployment was 4 per cent, after the increasing it is 20 per cent. Just like in Poland. That's my interpretation.
M Moogey
Senior Member
New Jersey, USA USA English majlo, you seem to understand it I'm pretty sure you could also use it for exaggeration. Perhaps it didn't literally multiply by 10 but rather went up a whole lot. An equivelant expression would be "The rate increased ten fold" which I like better but it's once again one of those style things; you can pick a favorite for yourself. -M M M56
Banned
Madrid Britain. English.roniy said: "The rate increased by a factor of ten" I understand the usage of "factor" in math for example : the factors of 10 are 2,5 and 10 . but how does it work in the example I gave. Any one can give an example with numbers, please ? Thanks. Click to expand...factor = a quantity by which a stated quantity is multiplied or divided, so as to indicate an increase or decrease in a measurement: The rate increased by a factor of ten. R
roniy
Senior Member
Brooklyn NY Hebrew First I want to say that I've asked the exact same qestion in the past, but I can't find the thread. So my question is : "The rate increased by a factor of ten" the factors of 10 are 1,2,5,10, correct ? As I remember the explanation was that the rate is multiplied by 10. But as I understand the rate increased by one of the factors of 10, I mean by 1,2,5,10. Mod note: roniy's thread has now been merged with an earlier one on the same question. How do you understand this sentence ? Thanks. Last edited by a moderator: Jul 21, 2012
bibliolept
Senior Member
Northern California AE, Español "Factor" here is not meant in the strict mathematic definition which you are suggesting. I found this definition for factor in M-W:quantity by which a given quantity is multiplied or divided in order to indicate a difference in measurement <costs increased by a factor of 10> Click to expand...
JamesM
Senior Member
Los Angeles, California English, USA "by a factor of " is used commonly to mean the same as "multiplied by" or "divided by." "Costs were reduced by a factor of 10" would mean costs are 1/10th what they used to be. "Costs increased by a factor of 10" would mean that costs are ten times what they used to be. It could just as easily be a factor of 4 or 9 or 12 or 5. It's simply another way to say that the previous figure has been roughly multiplied or divided by this number to get the new number. So, "increased by a factor of 2" = "doubled" = "200% of the original amount" = "twice the original amount" FForero
Senior Member
Maumelle, Arkansas, USA USA English The words "a factor of" are used to indicate multiplying by rather than adding the number ten. "Of" is one of the most flexibly used prepositions in the English language. In this case it means "which is". The rate increased by a factor (a multiplier), which is ten. "The rate increased by a factor of ten" means it increased to a new rate with ten as a multiplier. "The rate decreased by a factor of ten" would mean that the old rate is a factor of ten greater than the new rate, i.e. that the rate decreased by being divided by ten. The rate is not necessarily a whole number, so the mathematical meaning of "factor of" doesn't apply, though the meaning of "factor" is still "multiplier". Qqitastuff
Member
China, Chinese "Energy costs throughout the U.S. can vary by a factor of ten, so the use of this approximate value to combine heating and cooling does not significantly skew the calculations." I've always thought 'by a factor of ten' means by ten folds (or ten times). But in the above sentence, if it means 'by ten times', then I feel the variation is kind of too big. Sorry I can not elaborate here on the calculation it mentions. Can you please just confirm what 'by a factor of ten' means? Thanks a lot, QS
cyberpedant
Senior Member
North Adams, MA English USA, Northeast, NYC Your interpretation is correct. And I agree that the statement seems difficult to believe. KKenInPDX
Senior Member
Portland, Oregon US English It's not clear whether you are talking about per unit energy costs, or overall energy costs for some typical user - such as the amount an average family spends per month on all energy uses. Considering the wide variation in climate across the US, it is not hard to imagine that that there could be a 10-fold difference in energy costs depending on what you are talking about specifically. The average household in Minnesota probably spends at least 10 times as much heating their home in winter as the average household in Miami, Florida. Conversely, the average Floridian probably spends a lot more on air conditioning in the summer than the average Minnesotan. It probably balances out overall, so that they are spending more or less the same over a whole year. I think that might be what is being said here. In any case, a factor of 10 can only mean ten times, as you both said. Qqitastuff
Member
China, Chinese Thank you both very much!
ilgaleone
Member
Katerini, Grecia Greek Hello! I've just read a text in an English coursebook and I have difficulty in understanding the expression in bold following phrase: "if you had to cout all the cells in your body, the vast majority - by a factor of ten - would be microbes" Anything would help Mod note: this thread has now been merged with an earlier one on the same question. Last edited by a moderator: Jul 21, 2012 B b1947420
Senior Member
Lincoln, England British English I understand this to mean that for every cell there would be ten microbes. ilgaleone
Member
Katerini, Grecia Greek Thanks a lot! FFabulist
Banned
Annandale, Virginia, USA American English No, the microbes are being counted among the cells. "By a factor of ten" does mean "ten times as many" or a ratio of 10-1. The statement implies that 10 out of 11 cells "in your body" are microbes, which is an incredible statement as it stands, but we're not here to discuss biology.
JulianStuart
Senior Member
Sonoma County CA English (UK then US)"if you had to count all the cells in your body, the vast majority - by a factor of ten - would be microbes" Click to expand...It seems pretty clear from this that the speaker/author considers both human cells and microbes to be "cells".
Fabulist said: No, the microbes are being counted among the cells. "By a factor of ten" does mean "ten times as many" or a ratio of 10-1. The statement implies that 10 out of 11 cells "in your body" are microbes, which is an incredible statement as it stands, but we're not here to discuss biology. Click to expand...I would agree with this if you changed the first word from No to Yes! Last edited: Feb 13, 2011 F
Fabulist
Banned
Annandale, Virginia, USA American English "No" referred to counting "cells" vs. "microbes." The author isn't making separate counts of cells and microbes, but he is saying that 10 of 11 cells are microbes; the other 1 cell in 11 is something else, presumably a human body cell. GGeorge French
Senior Member
English - UKFabulist said: "No" referred to counting "cells" vs. "microbes." The author isn't making separate counts of cells and microbes, but he is saying that 10 of 11 cells are microbes; the other 1 cell in 11 is something else, presumably a human body cell. Click to expand...Some of these microbes are essential to our existance... Shouldn't we consider them as part of our body? We should count them!
Are they any differrent to white blood cells for example? They are "just floating arround inside us". GF.. Initiative research. JulianStuart
Senior Member
Sonoma County CA English (UK then US)Fabulist said: The author isn't making separate counts of cells and microbes, but he is saying that 10 of 11 cells are microbes; the other 1 cell in 11 is something else, presumably a human body cell. Click to expand...How can he not be basing the statement on separate counts if he ends up with a ratio of 10 to 1? There can only be "microbes" and "body cells" in the category " all the cells in your body" R
rzezucha
Senior Member
polish "My epiphany came with the chance discovery that people differ by a factor of 30 in the level of activity in their prefrontal cortex - activity associated with happiness and approach or with fear, disgust, anxiety, and withdrawal." It comes from a book by Richard J. Davidson 'The emotional life of your brain" (http://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Life-Your-Brain-Live/dp/1594630895) - I'm sorry if you can't find the exact context but this is the only way I can provide it to you, the quoted sentece is on page 7, the last paragraph. I'm not sure what this expression might mean - 30 times? Thanks for help! RRenaissance man
Senior Member
Gothenburg, Sweden Swedish Yes, by a factor of 30 means multiplied by 30. In this case, it means that one person can have 30 times the specified brain activity of another person.
natkretep
Moderato con anima (English Only)
Singapore English (Singapore/UK), basic Chinese Mod note: rzezucha's thread has now been merged with some earlier threads on the same question.
NewAmerica
Banned
Mandarin If it is multiplied by 10, then "Once the universe will age by a factor of 10" would have meant that "once the age of our universe reaches 138 billion years old" (the current age is about 13.8 billion). It seems not correct to me. Of course, our long-term cosmic plan is impressive. ***************** Finding Fuel for Our Frigid Cosmic Future As dark energy accelerates the expansion of the universe, civilizations will likely migrate into rich clusters of galaxies The accelerated expansion of the universe pushes resources away from us at an ever-growing speed. Once the universe will age by a factor of 10, all stars outside our Local Group of galaxies will not be accessible to us as they will be receding away faster than light. -Scientific American Source E Edinburgher
Senior Member
Scotland German/English bilingualNewAmerica said: It seems not correct to me. Click to expand...Nor me. "Once it will age by a factor of 10" does not make sense. It should be "once it ages by a factor of 10" or "once it will have aged by a factor of 10". Better still, "Once the universe reaches ten times its current age".
NewAmerica
Banned
Mandarin Thank you. bibliolept
Senior Member
Northern California AE, Español "A factor of ten" with "an order of magnitude" would have the same meaning. Mmanfy
Senior Member
Singapore German - AustriaNewAmerica said: It seems not correct to me. Click to expand...Not at first sight -- but if the author were talking about change of time as a result of the expanding universe, it would make sense. Then "Once the universe will age by a factor of 10" must be read as "once the universe ages 10 times as fast as it does now". I know that time is often thought of as an unchanging dimension. However, if you look at the big bang and some of those popular theories and hypotheses around it, time itself was expanding rapidly in the first pico- to milliseconds. So, if that is true, it would be plausible to believe that it can happen again, one way or the other (some theories say that time will slow down, others say it will speed up and again others say that it is, was and always will be constant -- take your pick
) JulianStuart
Senior Member
Sonoma County CA English (UK then US) This is from the poorly-edited blog section of the Scientific American - NOT the edited magazine itself. Many times, NA has asked about English found in such blog entries. In this case Abraham Loeb is the author and he was born in Israel so may well have retained the use of future tense in such contexts in English where we use "present" tense for future events, so post #23 seems to fix the issue. NewAmerica
Banned
Mandarin Well good catch. Abraham Loeb is chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University, founding director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative and director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Never too old to learn English. O October17
Senior Member
Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia Russian What about the phrase "increased by a factor of ten to the four" meaning "10000 times"? I found it in a video [Video link removed. DonnyB - moderator.] The speaker seems to be non-native but he's a scientist. I couldn't find this structure anywhere else in dictionaries or on the Internet. Is it OK to use this structure? Last edited by a moderator: Dec 5, 2020 JulianStuart
Senior Member
Sonoma County CA English (UK then US) Ten to the four, ten to the fourth, ten to the fourth power are variations on how to say the term 104 which can also be written 10,000. Last edited: Dec 5, 2020 You must log in or register to reply here. Share: Bluesky LinkedIn WhatsApp Email Share Link- English Only
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