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Comment by l0b0 | Hacker News Reader

They are doing the usual lie of saying 250% increase when they actually meant 70-180% increase. The first Google result for "walking speed"[1] refers to CDC for "2.5 to 4 mph"[2]. The Moonwalkers specs[3] say "Top Speed: 7 mph", which is a 180% increase (2.8x) over 2.5 mph and a 70% increase (1.7x) over 4 mph.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=walking+s...

[2] https://www.nike.com/hr/a/how-long-does-it-take-to-walk-a-mi...

[3] https://shiftrobotics.io/products/moonwalkers

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From what I see, they say “2.5 times faster than walking”. That’s an accurate statement.

It’s the trend of using “faster” when what’s meant is “as fast” that I don’t like.

It really isn't and it should be trivial to intuit this.

What is 1 times faster? If your interpretation is correct, that's not faster at all. Do you stand by this?

> What is 1 times faster? If your interpretation is correct, that's not faster at all.

I'm no OP, but I would stand by this, yes. In <= 1 case "as fast" instead of "faster" would probably be preferable, but for 2.5x I see no problem.

Something that is 50% faster, is in fact only going half as fast according to you? My car is 1 times faster than yours so it's so much faster that it isn't faster at all. It's just as fast.

I parse "N% faster" as "N% more fast" as in "delta is positive and N% of base". I parse "N times (or Nx) faster" as "ratio of after/before is equal to N". So "50% faster" is equivalent to "1.5 times faster". I genuinely don't understand the point you're making.

N% more fast and X times more fast are equivalent.

10% more fast is 1.1 times more fast. 50% more fast is 1.5 times more fast. 100% more fast is 1 times more fast. 200% more fast is 3 times more fast. N% more fast is 1 + N / 100 times more fast. Change factor.

100% more fast is 1 times more fast. This is mellanstadiematte in Sweden. We do this when we are 10-11. I'm guessing you did too.

1 times faster doesn’t make sense. “Faster” implies one thing is “more fast” than the other. 1 times faster actually means “as fast” so faster isn’t an appropriate word to use. That’s where your confusion is coming from.

The rule is X is N times faster than Y means speed(X) = N * speed(Y). Read “N * speed(Y)” out loud: “N times the speed of Y”.

I understand the point you are making but the problem is that of a conflation and not that of equivalence.

The price of gas is 10% higher this week than last week. A.k.a.: the price this week is 1.1 times the previous week.

I was going 50% faster than my friend was. A.k.a.: my speed was 1.5 times his'.

You were going 100% times faster than me, so you were going twice as fast as I was.

Change factor. 1 + the change / 100.

When using percents (e.g. N% faster), then you just add 1. So N% faster is (1 + N/100) times faster.

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