# Is this percentage correct..?



## Eggspit (Oct 7, 2010)

If there are 67 sweets in the tin
And 19 of theses are mine
Does that mean 28% of the total sweets are mine (or is it 39%)? 

Egg


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## Richard Schollar (Oct 7, 2010)

19/67 = 28%

Where did you get 39% from?


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## Eggspit (Oct 7, 2010)

My dim witted sister ..!


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## arkusM (Oct 7, 2010)

Eggspit said:


> My dim witted sister ..!


 Ethics aside.
The bigger question is why would you argue with that. Sun Tsu said "never inturupt your enemy when they are making a mistake". 
Never inturupt your sister when she says you are entitled to more. 
Just get her emptically agee to and write down the percentage. Then reverse the math and now you get 26 of the sweets.


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## Expiry (Oct 8, 2010)

I love this website. Nowhere else would respected, intellegent people - experts in their field - take time out of their well paid jobs to settle an arguement between brother and sister about how many sweets they're allowed. Brilliant.

By the way, If I'm driving 50 miles to the seaside, at what point of the journey can I start saying 'nearly', when my son asks "Are we there yet?" I think straight away, my wife thinks that strictly speaking we should only say that when we're past the halfway point.


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## RoryA (Oct 8, 2010)

Compromise: up until halfway, say "ask your mother"; thereafter, say "nearly".


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## SydneyGeek (Oct 8, 2010)

Expiry said:


> I love this website. Nowhere else would respected, intellegent people - experts in their field - take time out of their well paid jobs to settle an arguement between brother and sister about how many sweets they're allowed. Brilliant.
> 
> By the way, If I'm driving 50 miles to the seaside, at what point of the journey can I start saying 'nearly', when my son asks "Are we there yet?" I think straight away, my wife thinks that strictly speaking we should only say that when we're past the halfway point.



We only used to get asked when we hit a traffic jam. "I don't know" was not considered to be a suitable response. 

Denis


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## arkusM (Oct 8, 2010)

arkusM said:


> Just get her* emptically* {} agee to and write down the percentage.


 


> Nowhere else would... intellegent people...


 
Haha this is obviously not refering to me...


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## Cindy Ellis (Oct 8, 2010)

Richard Schollar said:


> 19/67 = 28%
> 
> Where did you get 39% from?


If you start with 48, and increase it by 39%, you get 67 after rounding.

I've heard similar discussions when talking about price "markup" percentage.  If the wholesale price is $50 and it's marked up to $100 for retail sale, is that a 50% markup or a 100% markup?  Even though the markup is 100% of the wholesale cost, it's typically called a 50% markup (at least where I used to work).


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## Gerald Higgins (Oct 15, 2010)

Expiry said:


> ...I'm driving 50 miles to the seaside...


 
Expiry, if you're in Dunbar as you claim, you don't actually need to drive 50 miles to the seaside, I think it's a little closer than that.


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## snowblizz (Oct 18, 2010)

Gerald Higgins said:


> Expiry, if you're in Dunbar as you claim, you don't actually need to drive 50 miles to the seaside, I think it's a little closer than that.


Wouldn't that depend entirely on the route taken?

Add a few miles everytime the kids ask how long it is. That'll teach them quick.


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## Gerald Higgins (Oct 18, 2010)

Well, knowing Expiry as well as I do, that's exactly the kind of thing he might do.
For those who don't know, Dunbar, Scotland, is VERY close to the sea. So close that even getting INTO the car, to get to the sea, would be silly for most people who live there.


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## snowblizz (Oct 18, 2010)

Gerald Higgins said:


> Well, knowing Expiry as well as I do, that's exactly the kind of thing he might do.
> For those who don't know, Dunbar, Scotland, is VERY close to the sea. So close that even getting INTO the car, to get to the sea, would be silly for most people who live there.


Dunbar! Now it clicks. "Cromwell's most famous victory" or something like that is the title of an Osprey campaign book.

Of course as a part time islander I know that even though you can chuck a rock into the sea from your own property it doesn't *technically* mean you're "seaside".

When I was young we would drive for 5-6 km to "get to the sea" even though we were literally right at it when starting out. Maybe 500m to the nearest body of seawater. Not that we'd have been crazy enough to swim there...


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## AlanWade (Oct 30, 2010)

arkusM said:


> Ethics aside.
> The bigger question is why would you argue with that. Sun Tsu said "never inturupt your enemy when they are making a mistake".
> Never inturupt your sister when she says you are entitled to more.
> Just get her emptically agee to and write down the percentage. Then reverse the math and now you get 26 of the sweets.



I love your ethics!!!!


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