Why do people keep getting this wrong‽

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CORRECTIONS
- I said that Bloomberg was still running for the presidential nomination when at the time he had already dropped out.
- Let me know if you spot any other mistakes!
- Oh, some of my camera work was a bit of a mistake. I need more time to sort out manual settings.

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Filming and editing by Matt Parker
Music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright

MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician

[aloso]

If there are calculators that cost only $1.50, Bloomberg could have bought every US citicen a calculator. That would have been life changing.

[Dekkiidekkii]

Considering that Finland has 5.5 million citizens and this video has been watched 1.1 million times, it's really astounding to think that if only Finnish people watched this video, they all would have watched it 5 million times. Really drives through how popular this guy is.

[zanehaas]

This reminds me of “People born in 2010 will be 90 in the year 3000.” I wonder why people mess up that one.

[nedcurfman]

On the other hand, if we assume the maths is correct, then that means Bloomberg could just give all that money to himself and keep repeating the process, and crash the US economy over night with infinite money, which I think is way more impressive

[prismarinestars]

The worst thing to me is not that they initially got the math wrong, but that they didn’t even question the ridiculous result. They were just like “Yep, must be right.”

[beholder]

Bloomberg could have just bought everybody a large soda.

[TruhartJenkins]

This is a great explanation for how people get these kinds of problems wrong.
I think that people are willing to accept the absurd result mainly because it has to do with politics, which as we all know is a very emotionally charged topic.

[xMarble]

I remember times in physics where it was exciting to cross out factors in divisions.
When you put the 500 million / 327 million, my brain instantly went: cross out all the letters !!

[givecamichips]

The most important instinct you can have is the "Wait, that can't be right." thought.

[HughMann]

These are the same people that say “I’ll never use math in my life”

[KevinZ.]

I had a similar conversation with a coworker when the US lottery was over $1 billion. He was why don't they spilt the money to every citizen? I was quick to point out that would only be about $3 per person.

[oldworldpatriot]

The ol’ “which is heavier, 10 tons of bricks or ten tons of feathers” grammar related logistical blind spot

[anawesomepet]

“Bloomberg spent 500 million dollars on Ads
He could have given 1 million dollars to each person”
I got tricked.
It made me think that there were 327 people in the USA.

[squillen]

Counterpoint: if you can keep 30 million sheep safe and kept track of, your sheep keeping abilities are unparalleled.

[charlesadams]

"Don't tell us if you're ahead on the math" takes me out every time!😂

[theflyingdutchguy]

i now understand why they always drilled in our head to read the questions well in school. and to take your time. otherwise mistakes like this would never be so common

[policarpo]

Matt: we consider “million sheep” the unit
Me, an intellectual: Megasheep

[robbie]

A farmer once asked me if I could round up his 297 sheep for him, I said sure.. three hundred

[disgruntledtoons]

It's very hard to get a math problem right when your agenda depends on getting it wrong.

[GrandSupremeDaddyo]

It's a relief to understand the units explanation you gave for this mistake. It's a mistake I can easily imagine myself making on a more complex or abstract problem. But it still blows my mind that people fall for something as obviously wrong as this particular one.