The biggest I’ve seen in a published source in the wild is an 80-fold error in a reported distance, which I think came from a series of at least three unit conversions and area/length misinterpretations.

https://explainxkcd.com/3065/

  • Donjuanme
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    4 days ago

    3 square feet are 3 1x1 feet, 1/3rd of a square yard. 3 feet squared is a square yard, 3x larger than 3 sqft.

    Unless I’m missing your sarcasm.

    Also the purpose of this xkcd

    Edit to add, a 600 square foot studio apartment (about 3% of an acre) is much smaller than the 600 foot squared lot that a mcmansion will sit on. (About 9 acres)

    • SpaceNoodle
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      4 days ago

      I believe “feet squared” and “feet, squared” is the discrepancy here.

      The unit ft^2 is pronounced “feet squared” and is equivalent to sq. ft.

      • Donjuanme
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        1 day ago

        "the Louisiana purchase added 838,000 square miles to the United States, tell me, was it 1/4 the size of the United States, or the 100x the surface area of the sun?

        One of those are square miles, the other is miles squared.

        But I don’t know why I expect you to understand this now.

        • SpaceNoodle
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          24 hours ago

          Did you mean to type “miles squared?”

          Oh, you’re just off your meds again.

      • Donjuanme
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        4 days ago

        No need to add the comma if you say it properly, feet squared are not squared feet, quantifier (3) adjective (square) noun (feet) vs quantifier (3) noun (square) affective (feet), it’s the order of operations in the English language, one is quantifying the distance of the edge, while the other is quantifying how many individual edges (squares) of set distance (feet) you have.

        I am not writing it with any discrepancy, though I do get tripped up when talking about it, but generally nobody calls anyone on it, except that’s when expensive projects go boom sometimes.

        Read out loud 3sqft and 3’^2,

        First one: 3 square feet

        Second one: 3 feet (foot? If you’re pedantic) squared (square if you’re a pedant)

        • SpaceNoodle
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          4 days ago

          Read out loud “three squared” and 3^2

          • Donjuanme
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            3 days ago

            Person behind this account, at this point you’re being deliberately dense.

            Find something better to do with your time

            Those are the exact same thing because they are the exact same thing.

            I understand English is difficult to parse, I hope you’ll get there some day.

            I guess you’re the person who this comic is written with thoughts of

            Maybe when you’re buying real estate or property some day it’ll click for you, in the mean time please ask for help before writing units in scientific papers, or interpreting those papers, and definitely don’t try to spread the results of those papers to others, lest we end up with world consuming insects.

            • SpaceNoodle
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              3 days ago

              Highly ironic that you’re telling me to find something better to do with my time.

              Get a grip, bud.

          • Donjuanme
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            3 days ago

            Did you not notice the unit modifier in the my second phrase???

            Let me spell it out for you.

            3 (three) ’ (feet) ^2 (squared)

            You’d have me repeating myself like a monkey, which is, NINE.

            3 (three) sq (square) ft (feet) is THREE.

            but I suspect you’ll disagree at at this point I’ll move on, my only sadness is there was a person out there who agreed with your original argument that they were the same.

            • SpaceNoodle
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              3 days ago

              Tell me what “three plus four squared” is.

                  • Donjuanme
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                    8 hours ago

                    Okay,

                    There’s this thing called the order of operations

                    And seeing as how you don’t know about it, it makes sense that you won’t know the difference between square miles and miles squared.

                    Please check out a junior high school math text book before bothering to argue on the Internet.

                    Edit i see where you’ve made the mistake,

                    If it’s (3+4)^2 then you’ve failed to combine like units, something they teach you about in kindergarten.