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* Early into ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'', Monokuma reveals that [[spoiler: the students lost two years of their memories]]. If one, however, factors in all the cumulative time periods, it actually more than likely twice that number. To elaborate, [[spoiler:they were a year ahead of the students from the first games, which lost two years of memories- one year at Hope's Peak Academy and one year sheltering within the school. Since one extra year of memories was erased, as was the time between the first game and the second, that works out to three or four years]].

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* Early into ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'', ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', Monokuma reveals that [[spoiler: the students lost two years of their memories]]. If one, however, factors in all the cumulative time periods, it actually more than likely twice that number. To elaborate, [[spoiler:they were a year ahead of the students from the first games, which lost two years of memories- one year at Hope's Peak Academy and one year sheltering within the school. Since one extra year of memories was erased, as was the time between the first game and the second, that works out to three or four years]].
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You have just discovered the fundamental truth: that your favorite author failed irredeemably at high school math and never wants to see a number ever again except in the corner of a page. This is a particular kind of continuity error that would be avoided if professional writers kept calculators at their desks. It can also come from multiple writers not checking with each other, or screwups in the timeline.

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You have just discovered the fundamental truth: that your favorite author failed irredeemably at high school math [[UsefulNotes/{{Mathematics}} math]] and never wants to see a number ever again except in the corner of a page. This is a particular kind of continuity error that would be avoided if professional writers kept calculators at their desks. It can also come from multiple writers not checking with each other, or screwups in the timeline.

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** Practically all forms of media disregard any given measurements about the sizes and population numbers of cities or villages. In early media, the giant island Mata Nui had less than a hundred denizens living in tiny villages. When the series was adapted into movies, the number was boosted to several hundred for dramatic purposes with no in-universe justification. The second film, a prequel, not only showed but clearly stated that the true number was several thousand, yet offered no explanation for why thousands later became hundreds. The writers were actually aware of these discrepancies, but their retroactive solution was to cap off the population number at one thousand, plus a small group of leaders and protectors. This was arguably the worst solution, as it contradicted every single piece of prior media, along with common sense. Early media explicitly said many islanders have died over the ages, which could have given some excuse for the inconsistent numbers, but this plot point was deliberately {{retcon}}ned, effectively meaning that the writers deliberately made their math even worse.

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** Practically all forms of media disregard any given measurements about the sizes and population numbers of cities or villages. In early media, the giant island Mata Nui had less than a hundred denizens living in tiny villages. When the series was adapted into movies, the number was boosted to several hundred for dramatic purposes with no in-universe justification. The second film, a prequel, not only showed but clearly stated that the true number was several thousand, yet offered no explanation for why thousands later became hundreds. The writers were actually aware of these discrepancies, but their retroactive solution was to cap off the population number at one thousand, plus a small group of leaders and protectors. This was arguably the worst solution, as it contradicted every single piece of prior media, along with common sense. Early media explicitly said many islanders have died over the ages, which could have given some excuse for the inconsistent numbers, but this plot point was deliberately {{retcon}}ned, effectively meaning that the writers deliberately made their math even worse.worse.
** Related to the population number madness, it was also stated that there were 5000 Vahki police robots watching over the people, effectively meaning that there were five large, highly efficient enforcer units for every single meager worker, which in no way adds up. Takua was even considered a weirdo for being so reckless and lazy that he had an entire Vahki squad assigned to watch him, but with a ratio of 5 Vahki for every person, his predicament doesn't sound too strange at all.


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** The franchise had issues with time scaling too. Sometimes creatures or characters who were a couple thousand years old were considered ancient and among the oldest ever. Yet in other parts of the story, hundred thousand year olds were said to be "young" and inexperienced. At one point, The Shadowed One [[RapidAging rapid-ages]] 3000 years and becomes frail and decrepit. Later on he and practically everyone else is revealed to be 100,000 years old, so an added couple thousand should really be nothing. Characters routinely talk of thousand year old objects or events as belonging to ancient, forgotten times that are only recorded in legend, though realistically they should all clearly remember them as they were alive at the time.
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** Practically all forms of media disregard any given measurements when depicting the sizes and population numbers of cities or villages. Depending on which part of the story you're looking at, the population of Metru Nui/Mata Nui can be several thousand, exactly one thousand (plus its small group of leaders and protectors), or just dozens. The online games have an excuse in that they couldn't possibly have programmed that many characters.
** Water began pouring into Karda Nui through an island-sized hole, which under a thousand years only managed to flood its bottom. While Karda Nui is a gigantic place and its sizes can only be guessed at though comparing different pieces of concept art, fans have calculated that even under the most lenient of circumstances, the place would have been filled with water in a matter of weeks.

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** Practically all forms of media disregard any given measurements when depicting about the sizes and population numbers of cities or villages. Depending on which part of In early media, the story you're looking at, giant island Mata Nui had less than a hundred denizens living in tiny villages. When the population of Metru Nui/Mata Nui can be series was adapted into movies, the number was boosted to several hundred for dramatic purposes with no in-universe justification. The second film, a prequel, not only showed but clearly stated that the true number was several thousand, exactly yet offered no explanation for why thousands later became hundreds. The writers were actually aware of these discrepancies, but their retroactive solution was to cap off the population number at one thousand (plus its thousand, plus a small group of leaders and protectors), or just dozens. The online games protectors. This was arguably the worst solution, as it contradicted every single piece of prior media, along with common sense. Early media explicitly said many islanders have an died over the ages, which could have given some excuse in for the inconsistent numbers, but this plot point was deliberately {{retcon}}ned, effectively meaning that they couldn't possibly have programmed that many characters.
the writers deliberately made their math even worse.
** Water began pouring into the massive cavern Karda Nui through an island-sized hole, which under a thousand years only managed to flood its bottom. While Karda Nui is a gigantic place and its sizes can only be guessed at though by comparing different pieces of concept art, fans have calculated that even under the most lenient of circumstances, the place would have been filled with water in a matter of weeks.
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--> -> ''"You know they say all men are created equal, but you look at me and you look at Wrestling/SamoaJoe and you can see that statement is NOT TRUE! See, normally if you go one-on-one with another wrestler you got a fifty/fifty chance of winning. But I'm a genetic freak, and I'm not normal! So you got a 25 percent at best at beating me! And then you add Wrestling/KurtAngle to the mix? You-the chances of winning drastically go down. See, the 3-Way at Sacrifice, you got a 33 and a third chance of winning. But I! I got a 66 and two-thirds chance of winning, cuz Kurt Angle KNOOOWS he can't beat me, and he's not even gonna try. So, Samoa Joe, you take your thirty-three and a third chance minus my twenty-five percent chance (if we was to go one on one) and you got an eight and a third chance of winning at Sacrifice. But then you take my 75 perchance-chance of winnin' (if we was to go one on one), and then add 66 and two thirds…percents, I got a 141 2/3 chance of winning at Sacrifice! Señor Joe? The numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for you at Sacrifice!"''
Astonishingly, perhaps, ''arithmetically'' Steiner's numbers actually all add up. It's just that chance doesn't work like that. [[note]]And, naturally, Samoa Joe won.[[/note]]

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--> -> ''"You know they say all men are created equal, but you look at me and you look at Wrestling/SamoaJoe and you can see that statement is NOT TRUE! See, normally if you go one-on-one with another wrestler you got a fifty/fifty chance of winning. But I'm a genetic freak, and I'm not normal! So you got a 25 percent at best at beating me! And then you add Wrestling/KurtAngle to the mix? You-the chances of winning drastically go down. See, the 3-Way at Sacrifice, you got a 33 and a third chance of winning. But I! I got a 66 and two-thirds chance of winning, cuz Kurt Angle KNOOOWS he can't beat me, and he's not even gonna try. So, Samoa Joe, you take your thirty-three and a third chance minus my twenty-five percent chance (if we was to go one on one) and you got an eight and a third chance of winning at Sacrifice. But then you take my 75 perchance-chance of winnin' (if we was to go one on one), and then add 66 and two thirds…percents, I got a 141 2/3 chance of winning at Sacrifice! Señor Joe? The numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for you at Sacrifice!"''
** Astonishingly, perhaps, ''arithmetically'' Steiner's numbers actually all add up. It's just that chance doesn't work like that. [[note]]And, naturally, Samoa Joe won.[[/note]]


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* ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'':
** When Wrestling/TheUndertaker was set to face Wrestling/TripleH at ''[=WrestleMania=] XXVII'', they pretended that Triple H and 'Taker had never wrestled before. 'Taker said that he had "beaten 19 men" at ''[=WrestleMania=]'', when he had faced Wrestling/{{Kane}} and Wrestling/ShawnMichaels twice. He had said "18 men have come..." on the promo the previous year, which was accurate up until the second time he faced Michaels, with his two matches against Kane being balanced by the fact that one of his matches was a two-on-one handicap.
** When promoting a ''[=WrestleMania=]'' milestone, WWE forgets that the number of the ''[=WrestleMania=]'' doesn't actually indicate how many years it's been since the first one. ''[=WrestleMania=] XXV'' wasn't actually the 25th anniversary of the first ''[=WrestleMania=]'', it was the ''24th'' anniversary. If you wanted to mark the 25-year anniversary of the first ''[=WrestleMania=]'', you had to wait until ''[=WrestleMania=] XXVI''.
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* Early into ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'', Monokuma reveals that [[spoiler: the students lost two years of their memories]]. If one, however, factors in all the cumulative time periods, it actually more than likely twice that number.

to:

* Early into ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'', Monokuma reveals that [[spoiler: the students lost two years of their memories]]. If one, however, factors in all the cumulative time periods, it actually more than likely twice that number. To elaborate, [[spoiler:they were a year ahead of the students from the first games, which lost two years of memories- one year at Hope's Peak Academy and one year sheltering within the school. Since one extra year of memories was erased, as was the time between the first game and the second, that works out to three or four years]].
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* A common internet meme is to take some large amount of money being spent on something (say, $600 million), divide it by the number of people in the United States (at time of writing, a bit over 320 million), and claim it would be more practical to give everyone in the US a life-changing million dollars. But the people making these memes are either bad at math or [[{{Troll}} hoping to mess with such people]], as millions cancel when dividing. Dividing the original amount by the American population would actually give a not-so-life-changing ''couple of bucks'' per person, not a million.
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** No need to worry about handbreadths here. The numbers 10 and 30 each have but one significant figure, so any computation done with them is accurate to only one significant figure.
** The real problem is that the writer apparently felt the need to provide both the diameter and the circumference, as if unaware that either could be derived from the other.
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->''Up in the sky, the alien mother ship sent down twenty hundred troops, three in each space jet.\\
And if you want to know how many jets there were,'' you ''can do the math yourself. I'm a very busy writer trying to make a movie here.''

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->''Up ->''"Up in the sky, the alien mother ship sent down twenty hundred troops, three in each space jet.\\
And if you want to know how many jets there were,'' you ''can do the math yourself. I'm a very busy writer trying to make a movie here.''"''



Oh, for the examples below that reference the number Pi, it is an irrational number with no limit -- an endless number -- of digits, but the first 16 are 3.141592653589793.

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Oh, for the examples below that reference the number Pi, pi, it is an irrational number with no limit -- an endless number -- of digits, but the first 16 are 3.141592653589793.



* {{WritersCannotDoMath/Film}}

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* {{WritersCannotDoMath/Film}}WritersCannotDoMath/{{Film}}






* Website/YouTube animator Ice Cream Sandwich, in his video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKLbOxLJfRg "hurt,"]] says that if 6.8 million Americans break a bone each year, and the total population is about 300 million, then about 2/10 Americans break a bone annually. If that sounds high, that's because he's off by an order of magnitude--with those numbers the injury rate would be 0.0226666..., or about 2/100, i.e. 2%. Not 20%.

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* Website/YouTube animator Ice Cream Sandwich, in his video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKLbOxLJfRg "hurt,"]] "hurt"]], says that if 6.8 million Americans break a bone each year, and the total population is about 300 million, then about 2/10 Americans break a bone annually. If that sounds high, that's because he's off by an order of magnitude--with magnitude — with those numbers the injury rate would be 0.0226666..., or about 2/100, i.e. 2%. Not 20%.
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** The real problem is that the writer apparently felt the need to provide both the diameter and the circumference, as if unaware that either could be derived from the other.
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[[caption-width-right:350:In [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Super-math]] it may be [[MisplacedADecimalPoint 32,000]]. But in regular math, it's 3,200.[[note]]And that's ignoring the rounding errors. [[/note]]]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:In [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Super-math]] it may be [[MisplacedADecimalPoint 32,000]]. But in regular math, it's 3,200.[[note]]And that's ignoring the potential rounding errors. [[/note]]]]
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[[caption-width-right:350:In [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Super-math]] it may be [[MisplacedADecimalPoint 32,000]]. But in regular math, it's 3,200.[[note]]And that's ignoring the rounding errors. What rounding errors? [[/note]]]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:In [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Super-math]] it may be [[MisplacedADecimalPoint 32,000]]. But in regular math, it's 3,200.[[note]]And that's ignoring the rounding errors. What rounding errors? [[/note]]]]
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Seeing if this fixes accidently dropping the entire page into the note dropdown.


[[caption-width-right:350:In [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Super-math]] it may be [[MisplacedADecimalPoint 32,000]]. But in regular math, it's 3,200.[[note]]And that's ignoring the rounding errors. %% What rounding errors? [[/note]]]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:In [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Super-math]] it may be [[MisplacedADecimalPoint 32,000]]. But in regular math, it's 3,200.[[note]]And that's ignoring the rounding errors. %% What rounding errors? [[/note]]]]
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[[caption-width-right:350:In [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Super-math]] it may be [[MisplacedADecimalPoint 32,000]]. But in regular math, it's 3,200.[[note]]And that's ignoring the rounding errors.[[/note]]]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:In [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Super-math]] it may be [[MisplacedADecimalPoint 32,000]]. But in regular math, it's 3,200.[[note]]And that's ignoring the rounding errors. %% What rounding errors? [[/note]]]]
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[[folder:Myths & Religion]]

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[[folder:Myths & [[folder:Mythology and Religion]]



[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]

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[[folder:Pro [[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
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** No need to worry about handbreadths here. The numbers 10 and 30 each have but one significant figure, so any computation done with them is accurate to only one significant figure.
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No tropes in page quotes.


And if you want to know how many jets there were,'' you ''can do the math yourself. [[LampshadeHanging I'm a very busy writer trying to make a movie here.]]''

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And if you want to know how many jets there were,'' you ''can do the math yourself. [[LampshadeHanging I'm a very busy writer trying to make a movie here.]]''''
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And if you want to know how many jets there were, you can do the math yourself. I'm a very busy writer trying to make a movie here.''

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And if you want to know how many jets there were, were,'' you can ''can do the math yourself. [[LampshadeHanging I'm a very busy writer trying to make a movie here.'']]''

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* Wrestling/ScottSteiner's infamous promo for a match against Wrestling/SamoaJoe and Wrestling/KurtAngle in [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]][[note]]Samoa Joe won.[[/note]]:

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* Wrestling/ScottSteiner's infamous promo for a match against Wrestling/SamoaJoe and Wrestling/KurtAngle in [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]][[note]]Samoa Joe won.[[/note]]:TNA]]:


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Astonishingly, perhaps, ''arithmetically'' Steiner's numbers actually all add up. It's just that chance doesn't work like that. [[note]]And, naturally, Samoa Joe won.[[/note]]
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Band names do not go in italics.


* In the ''Music/SpiritOfTheWest'' song "The Crawl", there are eight "good old boys" at the beginning of the pub crawl, but "half" of them are left behind along the way, resulting in only three of them making it to the end. Sometimes, in concert, they fixed this division error by having them start with six instead of eight.

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* In the ''Music/SpiritOfTheWest'' Music/SpiritOfTheWest song "The Crawl", there are eight "good old boys" at the beginning of the pub crawl, but "half" of them are left behind along the way, resulting in only three of them making it to the end. Sometimes, in concert, they fixed this division error by having them start with six instead of eight.
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When I is a personal pronoun, it should be capitalized.


* There is a possibly apocryphal story of Yogi Berra going to a pizza parlor and, when asked if he wanted his pizza cut into four or eight pieces, he replied [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Better make it four, I don't think i can eat eight pieces."]]

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* There is a possibly apocryphal story of Yogi Berra going to a pizza parlor and, when asked if he wanted his pizza cut into four or eight pieces, he replied [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Better make it four, I don't think i I can eat eight pieces."]]
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Added DiffLines:

* In the ''Music/SpiritOfTheWest'' song "The Crawl", there are eight "good old boys" at the beginning of the pub crawl, but "half" of them are left behind along the way, resulting in only three of them making it to the end. Sometimes, in concert, they fixed this division error by having them start with six instead of eight.
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[[folder: Magazines]]

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[[folder: Magazines]][[folder:Magazines]]
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* There is a possibly apocryphal story of Yogi Berra going to a pizza parlor and, when asked if he wanted his pizza cut into four or eight pieces, he replied [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Better make it four, I don't think i can eat eight pieces"]]

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* There is a possibly apocryphal story of Yogi Berra going to a pizza parlor and, when asked if he wanted his pizza cut into four or eight pieces, he replied [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Better make it four, I don't think i can eat eight pieces"]]pieces."]]
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* There is a possibly apocryphal story of Yogi Berra going to a pizza parlor and, when asked if he wanted his pizza cut into four or eight pieces, he replied [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Better make it four, I don't think i can eat eight pieces"]]
[[/folder]]

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[[folder: Magazines]]
* ''Magazine/{{MAD}}''. The ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}'' parody, "Ghost-Dusters," (''MAD'' #253) featured the characters explaining the $10,000 charge for capturing the parody's equivalent of Slimer. The individual prices actually totaled $11,000. A reader wrote in and the magazine had to admit its error.
[[/folder]]

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* Website/YouTube animator Ice Cream Sandwich, in his video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKLbOxLJfRg "hurt,"]] says that if 6.8 million Americans break a bone each year, and the total population is about 300 million, then about 2/10 Americans break a bone annually. If that sounds high, that's because he's off by an order of magnitude--with those numbers the injury rate would be 0.00226666..., or about 2/100, i.e. 2%. Not 20%.

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* Website/YouTube animator Ice Cream Sandwich, in his video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKLbOxLJfRg "hurt,"]] says that if 6.8 million Americans break a bone each year, and the total population is about 300 million, then about 2/10 Americans break a bone annually. If that sounds high, that's because he's off by an order of magnitude--with those numbers the injury rate would be 0.00226666...0226666..., or about 2/100, i.e. 2%. Not 20%.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

* Website/YouTube animator Ice Cream Sandwich, in his video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKLbOxLJfRg "hurt,"]] says that if 6.8 million Americans break a bone each year, and the total population is about 300 million, then about 2/10 Americans break a bone annually. If that sounds high, that's because he's off by an order of magnitude--with those numbers the injury rate would be 0.00226666..., or about 2/100, i.e. 2%. Not 20%.

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