OK, so he admits that nothing actually happened as a result but:
While there are always arguments over the size of demonstrations (the 2 million-or-so figure we claim is supported by considerable polling and photographic evidence), there is no dispute that this was not merely the country’s biggest political protest, but the biggest by a substantial order of magnitude.
Just what is a "substantial order of magnitude"?
One order of magnitude is times 10 (or divide by ten). I agree that there’s not been a 20 million strong demonstration: but I’m absolutely certain that there have been 200,000 strong demonstrations (at least one of the Countryside Marches was that large). So it’s not the largest by one order of magnitude, let alone a "substantial" one.
So what is he talking about?
8 responses so far ↓
1 Helen // Feb 13, 2008 at 11:06 am
The Countryside Alliance march was nearly 500,000 as attested by the counter that was prominently put up in Whitehall just by Parliament Square. The anti-war march had no such thing and 2 million was not claimed by any but the most overexcited fringe even at the time. This is nonsense.
2 dearieme // Feb 13, 2008 at 11:56 am
He’s heard the expression “order of magnitude” and, being innumerate, thinks it a posh expression for “big”.
3 sanbikinoraion // Feb 13, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Helen, IIRC the widely-touted figure was 1 million at the time, with the police claiming 400,000. However, it was not too long after the event that the organizers began claiming 2m. At least, that’s how I remember it. Whether they have any evidence or if it’s a bit of sophistry on their part (repeat 2 million enough times and eventually that will become the truth) I don’t know.
4 Zorro // Feb 13, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Hehe the phrase “substantial order of magnitude” shows he does not understand what an order of magnitude is. As you state it is a fixed thing. If A is an order of magnitude bigger than B then A = 10xB. That is what an order of magnitude is. A ’substantial’ 10x is the same as just ‘10x’. Idiot.
That’s like saying a substantial dozen.
5 David Gillies // Feb 13, 2008 at 7:33 pm
The order of magnitude of a number n is nint(log10(n)) (nint(x) is nearest integer to x i.e. round)
order of magnitude(2000000) = 6
order of magnitude(320000) = 6
order of magnitude(310000) = 5
6 MikinAppalachia // Feb 13, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Ummm…………an “order of magnitude” usually refers to the power of 10 represented by the stated number considered, i.e., a number rounded to the nearest power of 10 where the power of 10 is the order of magnitude.
1,000,000 = magnitude of 6
1,000 = magnitude of 3
4,567,000 = magnitude of 6
jother opinions?
7 john b // Feb 14, 2008 at 12:03 am
In English language terms, Mik is right; I have no idea whether David is citing some kind of special mathmo definition though…
8 pj // Feb 14, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I’d have thought that a ’substantial order of magnitude’ would have been the GCMG although the KCMG’d be a shoo in. Fat basterds most of them anyway.
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