Reading the front page of your March 28 issue, I was distracted by the glaring arithmetic errors in the piece entitled “Two Malibu movie gurus selected.” She states that, “Out of 50 ballots entered, 1 percent voted . . , and 3 percent voted . . .” Further on, she writes, “. . . 85 percent choosing. . .” Everyone should know that 2 percent of 50 ballots is one vote. The three errors cited above with odd numbers as percentage points suggest that there are half votes. Why didn’t the writer simply use the actual numbers of votes instead of putting on pretentious airs by claiming percentages when she apparently does not have the basic arithmetic ability to correctly do so? And why didn’t the editor catch these obvious errors on the front page before they were printed?
I feel this carelessness regarding accuracy sets a bad example for our young people and needs to be addressed. How can we expect them to be well educated and articulate when we aren’t able to do simple arithmetic correctly in a published newspaper? Moreover, many people accept numbers published in a newspaper as factual without bothering to check them. Clearly, more care is needed by both readers and newspaper staff.
Another example of this arithmetic illiteracy (although not the fault of the editor) shows up in a letter to the editor on page A7 by Don Maclay. In it, he is making a point about the size of an approved excavation. He claims that “4.5 million cubic yards of dirt” is enough for “a layer of over two feet on every one of the 50.4 acres, and is more volume than is contained in the Hoover Dam.” Well, he’s right about Hoover Dam; it contains 4,360,000 cubic yards. However, let’s look at those 50.4 acres. As one acre is equal to 43,560 square feet, then 50.4 acres equal 2,195,424 square feet. Now, a cubic yard is equal to 27 cubic feet (3ft x 3ft x 3ft), which means that 4.5 million cubic yards equal 121,500,000 cubic feet. If one places that volume of dirt on top of those 50.4 acres, the dirt depth is 121,500,000 divided by 195,424 or 55.34 feet deep! Clearly, he did not change yards to feet in his calculations. I wonder if the 4.5-million-yard number is also incorrect?
Cris Jones