way way off topic

[Gary Kline]

On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 11:34:36AM +0700, Erich Dollansky wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:20:07 -0700
> Gary Kline <kline at thought.org> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > apologies up front for this math type quandary. I had it in a std C
> > program, but 3+ hours of grepping havent found it.  I would have bet
> > my last cent that I had a summary Somewhere, but cant find that
> > either.
> > 
> > here is the problem as best I can remember it.
> > 
> > 
> > 	let's say that john is 8 and his older friend, jim, is 22.  
> > 	how much older is exact percentage terms is jim?
> > 
> > to find the answer I had to find the relative difference {22 - 8} and
> > then do something with the difference.  this isn't any kind of trick
> > or "advanced-cognition"; I just thought it was clever [and exact].
> > it obviously works for finding the abs() results in subtraction.
> > it's something I found on the web and swipes and save the prose
> > discussion.  BZZT: Lost, :-(
> > 
> It seems that I am also lost. What should abs() do here?
> 
> I would multiply the age of john and the difference with 100 and then
> divide the result to get the percentage.
> 
> Or did I get lost here?
> 
> > if this seems dumb, I plead guilty!
> > 
> > im asking here because -questions is the sharpest list on the net.
> > 
> 
> Are you sure?
> 
> Erich

	LOL.  yes!  

	it's been years since I used the steps to find the accurant amount of
	difference.  it may not have involved a %.  I can only think of one
	concrete example.

	lets say that x == 15 and y == 16.  Q:  how much less is x than y?
	it is not just "1"; there was some other way of finding the answer.  


-- 
 Gary Kline  kline at thought.org  http://www.thought.org  Public Service Unix
              Twenty-six years of service to the Unix community.