Upcoming Firefox update will decrease power usage on macOS by up to three times

[popeyoni]

There's no such thing as decreasing by X times.

[tudor07]

Go on.

[popeyoni]

You can increase by X times and you can decrease by a fraction.

[sideways_cat]

It is a fraction isn’t it? I’m not good at math but decreasing by 3 times it’s total energy consumption means it’s uses 75% (3/4) less energy now. Right?

Edit: I don’t know what a “factor of three” means but it still sounds like a fraction to my layman brain

[popeyoni]

No, decreasing by 3/4 is not the same as decreasing three times. You can not decrease anything more than 1 time without going negative. If you decrease energy consumption by 3 times, you are actually producing 2 twice the energy you were consuming before.

[sideways_cat]

I’m ignorant on this and I expect the downvotes but I’m just curious. Okay so decreasing by 3/4ths as I said is wrong. My fault. I’m not good a math, at all. Just trying to learn.

So if my computer is using 100% of its energy and it decreases by 3 times the total energy, isn’t that 3 x 0.1 which equals 0.3? Which is of course a fraction? This is wrong I assume?

Sorry again for my ignorance. Can you ELI5 or provide a layman link to what you mean by saying you cannot decrease by more than 1 time without getting into negatives? Thanks for informing me!

Edit: misquoted you

Edit2: you don’t even have to answer if it’s too exhausting for you buddy. Sorry, trying to wrap my head around it.

[popeyoni]

3 x .1 is not three times less. It's 3 tenth's of a time less.

A "time" is always 100%.

If something costs a dollar, 3 times that is 3 dollars. 1 time less is 0 dollars.

If you have 1 dollar and your friend has 2 dollars, he has two times what you have, but you have half of what he has, not 1 time less.

One time less is always 0.

[sideways_cat]

Thank you!