http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/09/0625245&from=rss
Or if you wanna hear the convo right away, here it is.
I grabbed this from Slashdot. The story is how Verizon techs can't do math. They can't differentiate between 0.002 cents and 0.002 dollars. Iuno how the caller was able to tolerate the techie. I would have broken down and cried about 5 minutes into the conversation.
It's quite funny, but depressing at the same time.
Actually you know what, this guy is at fault, I just finished the video, math is not the problem, in the grammatical English monetary language, .002 cents is not 2/1000's of 1 cent, it is 2/1000's of a dollar. In proper monetary grammar, anything less than a dollar is considered in "cent" format.
No one does math like this in monetary form, the guy doesn't know basic English monetary terms. He's pissed that he got a bad ISP deal, and he's trying to word-play his own mess up by using traditional math to explain monetary terms.
English is messed up as it is. Everyday everybody who use sit technically lies, because of wording.
I won't discuss the exacts even further, I am not a math fan.
While I was on yourube I looked up the lady who called 911 because Burger King wouldn't make her burger right. still funny.
Oh god.
I am smarter than that person and I've only listened to 3 minutes worth of it.
Actually you know what, this guy is at fault, I just finished the video, math is not the problem, in the grammatical English monetary language, .002 cents is not 2/1000's of 1 cent, it is 2/1000's of a dollar. In proper monetary grammar, anything less than a dollar is considered in "cent" format.
No one does math like this in monetary form, the guy doesn't know basic English monetary terms. He's pissed that he got a bad ISP deal, and he's trying to word-play his own mess up by using traditional math to explain monetary terms.
0.002 cents and 0.002 dollars are completely different. 0.002 dollars is 1/5 of a cent. 0.002 cents is 1/500 of a cent.
EDIT: I'm glad Canadians, Americans and Australians all use dollars or this may have been even more complicated.
ah, I was looking at them. (verizon) a while back. I knew it was too good to be true. I'll stick with my old fashion land line till all the bugs are worked out of these new fangle ways of talking.
God, when they get into the numbers, I'm totally lost on the math. But I can definatly get the differnece between dollars and cents. I wonder if the tech guy is paid to be naive to the difference between dollars and cents. I'm sure most would just give up after 5 min.
e1n, you'd probably be able to keep up with all this math.
OMG, I can't believe I'm only half way through listening to this.
Oh god.
I am smarter than that person and I've only listened to 3 minutes worth of it.0.002 cents and 0.002 dollars are completely different. 0.002 dollars is 1/5 of a cent. 0.002 cents is 1/500 of a cent.
EDIT: I'm glad Canadians, Americans and Australians all use dollars or this may have been even more complicated.
Listen to what the lady tells him towards the end, I felt the same way within the first 3 minutes, it's the lady that got me to change my POV.
Any monetary unit lower than a dollar is considered a cent, .002 cents = 0.002 dollars, they are not different, because you do not do math on the cent, the cent is the resulting units classification.
It's like saying 50 Mph, when you calculate 200 miles, and 4 hours, you don't start with 2 units of MPH, you start with miles, and hours. Well, when you start with dollars, and then you get a result less than a dollalr, you label it cents. .002 cents per kb is 0.002 of a dollar. It is impossible to calculate .002 of a cent because monetary units less than a "cent" do not exist.
Now this guy can probably win a courtcase because he had the phone representative write "cents" as a note, so any lawyer can win a case for him if he chooses to do so, but think about it, if the company actually meant ".002 of a cent" rather than ".002 cents" more people would be suing them, and this company would have shut down or stopped offering this plan.
@_@ too many numbers for my little head
….so, the tech lady is right?
The man really just misunderstood what he was originally told.
Listen to what the lady tells him towards the end, I felt the same way within the first 3 minutes, it's the lady that got me to change my POV.
Any monetary unit lower than a dollar is considered a cent, .002 cents = 0.002 dollars, they are not different, because you do not do math on the cent, the cent is the resulting units classification.
It's like saying 50 Mph, when you calculate 200 miles, and 4 hours, you don't start with 2 units of MPH, you start with miles, and hours. Well, when you start with dollars, and then you get a result less than a dollalr, you label it cents. .002 cents per kb is 0.002 of a dollar. It is impossible to calculate .002 of a cent because monetary units less than a "cent" do not exist.
Now this guy can probably win a courtcase because he had the phone representative write "cents" as a note, so any lawyer can win a case for him if he chooses to do so, but think about it, if the company actually meant ".002 of a cent" rather than ".002 cents" more people would be suing them, and this company would have shut down or stopped offering this plan.
Units are not converted like that.
0.002 cents is not 0.002 dollars. See it this way. We know that 2 dollars is 200 cents, right? So, work your way from there.
2 dollars = 200 cents
0.2 dollars = 20 cents
0.02 dollars = 2 cents
0.002 dollars = 0.2 cents
0.0002 dollars = 0.02 cents
0.00002 dollars = 0.002 cents
Even if 0.002 cents cannot exist physically in coins, it still exists. It's a rate and meant to build up. If you used 1000 kilobytes and the rate was 0.002 cents per kilobyte, you would be charged 200 cents, or 2 dollars. If the rate was 0.002 dollars per kilobyte, you would be charged 200 dollars.
One rate is 100 times greater than the other.
@Freezerburn:
Units are not converted like that.
0.002 cents is not 0.002 dollars. See it this way. We know that 2 dollars is 200 cents, right? So, work your way from there.
2 dollars = 200 cents
0.2 dollars = 20 cents
0.02 dollars = 2 cents
0.002 dollars = 0.2 cents
0.0002 dollars = 0.02 cents
0.00002 dollars = 0.002 centsEven if 0.002 cents cannot exist physically in coins, it still exists. It's a rate and meant to build up. If you used 1000 kilobytes and the rate was 0.002 cents per kilobyte, you would be charged 200 cents, or 2 dollars. If the rate was 0.002 dollars per kilobyte, you would be charged 200 dollars.
One rate is 100 times greater than the other.
^^ This is correct. There is no monetary acknowledgement to be had; there's a rate buildup, which is the problem at hand, and .002 cents is MUCH LESS than .002 dollars.
Saw this all on SA already but it still amazes me how people can't figure it out. @_@
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Credo quia absurdum non credere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
^^ This is correct. There is no monetary acknowledgement to be had; there's a rate buildup, which is the problem at hand, and .002 cents is MUCH LESS than .002 dollars.
Saw this all on SA already but it still amazes me how people can't figure it out. @_@
ha ha, so who was right, the guy or the company? I'm so confused now 
