Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Valid point, but your starting mass also increases.

Then there's also that if the measurement changes, the results can become pretty bizarre. Say, you are on a diet for one month. At the start of the month, the kilo prototype weights 1 skg and at the end 1 ekg = 0.9 skg. You measure yourself at the start of the diet, and get that you weight 100 skg. You use some very precise diet-fu to draft a program that should see you losing 5 skg during the month. And lo and behold, you manage to stick to the program and loose exactly 5 skg.

But at the end of the month, when you measure yourself against the now-lighter prototype, you get that you now weight 106 ekg. So, you actually achieved your target and lost 5 kilos, but meanwhile ended up with 6 kilos more body mass than before the diet!

(Disclaimer: real changes in the prototype mass are of course way, way smaller.)




Ha, love it. I wonder if that's like receiving dividends on shares in a foreign currency. Your share value (weight in kg) changes over time due to currency fluctuations (lowering value of 1kg), but the dividends paid out (variable weight loss for a given time period) are also affected by the same currency fluctuations (lowering value of 1kg).




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: