Is an order of magnitude simply 10x bigger or smaller and 2 orders of magnitude simply 100x bigger or smaller. If this is correct why not simply say 10x or 100x bigger/smaller?
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> If this is correct why not simply say 10x or 100x bigger/smaller?
It is a matter of precision and accuracy.
If I say something is 10x bigger, but it is really 11x bigger, then 10x for many uses is wrong.
If instead I say something is an order of magnitude bigger and it works out to be 8x or 10x or 15x or even 35x, it’s still in range.
Similarly, saying something is 200x bigger but it works out to be 100x or 300x those answers are inaccurate, imprecise, or both, and in many uses wrong. But if I say something is a few orders of magnitude bigger and it works out to be 100x or 200x or 300x, they’re still in range.
Precision and accuracy matter to some people, especially those in technical fields. The more precise you make your answer, the more precise it is assumed to be. A quick way to rile up a bunch of techies is to throw around made-up numbers and make up random statistics. If you tell me something is 73% bigger, I might be fine with it being 72% or 74%, but if I end up checking and it works out to be 47% bigger then your answer is significantly wrong and I won’t find you reliable in the future.
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