The Daily Dread - Tracking the spread, 9/1/20 - Come September...
All times Pacific, source: Johns Hopkins/NBC News
At 8:45am
Confirmed cases worldwide - 25,511,564
Deaths worldwide - 851,736
Confirmed cases US - 6,056,627
Deaths US - 184,782 *
At 12:24pm - domestic data only
Confirmed cases US - 6,073,067
Deaths US - 185,139 *
* Basic digit change, from 184 thousand-and-some to 185-thousand-and-some. If I remember enough from math class, you round up to the next number at 5 or more in the number below it. If it's less than 5 then you don't round up. So you can generalize truthfully with a number like 184,782 by calling it "almost 185-thousand." But you can't do that with a number like 185,139. You can't round it up and say "almost 186-thousand." That's not a fair call, because the next number below the 5 is only 1 (as in 139). Gotta wait til 139 passes 500. Then you're talking more-than-half. So you can fairly call it "approaching 186-thousand," or "almost 185-thousand" - as the number grows increasingly beyond the 500-mark.
At least that's how I learned it, if memory serves. Seems to me when we're dealing with numbers, we're bound to be consistent with the precision those numbers offer. And seems to me it's all the more profoundly important because those numbers count sick people and people who've died from that sickness.
Not trying to be too nerdy here, but please forgive me if this stuff starts getting annoying. For some odd reason I feel compelled to explain things right now...
Fwiw.
= new reply since forum marked as read
