nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqg7va94ywu9fjkh2y6sz90vcqwv00shpyfgy5ndy8ltq59sy6szpsr4pmdx (nprofile…pmdx) nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqch8hfpny6tp95jqut4smklg3nx2h93dvvw6x4jsaqzwj8u6az9lq40qmju (nprofile…qmju)
That last one at least has a reasonable explanation. The ε here is supposed to be elasticity of demand (the derivative of the logarithm of quantity demanded with respect to the logarithm of price, that is p/q⋅dq/dp), and since this is (as I have defined it) almost always negative, both this and its opposite are called ‘elasticity’ in practice. (In the applied calculus textbook that my school uses, they actually define elasticity as the absolute value, but I tell my students that this is a bad idea since elasticity of demand is not *always* negative (and elasticity of supply is not always positive); it's reasonable to swap the sign for demand so that it will usually be positive, but the sign still gives you information.) So while it's careless, it's not unheard of to say first that elasticity of demand is negative and later that it's 4 (when you really mean that it's −4).
What is unreasonable is to just make up a number out of whole cloth and pretend that it applies in every situation, just to balance out some other number that you made up out of whole cloth, all in a vain effort to retroactively justify your bullshit calculation.
TobyBartels /
npub1kp…gr9jw
2025-04-10 01:27:07
in reply to nevent1q…ch4q
Author Public Key
npub1kpf5nh0jvj3ygrlz3zw2s2qvy2dpdp5zdlwnl2nqujugfugumkfqngr9jwPublished at
2025-04-10 01:27:07Event JSON
{
"id": "cc0b7033e59cfe34724d41fbf08fbd8b8a3f4f599311c540775633ec5e3482d3",
"pubkey": "b05349ddf264a2440fe2889ca8280c229a1686826fdd3faa60e4b884f11cdd92",
"created_at": 1744248427,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"p",
"4799d2d48ee1532b5d44d40457b300731ef85c244a0949b487fac142c09a8083",
"wss://relay.mostr.pub"
],
[
"p",
"c5cf748664d2c25a481c5d61bb7d11999572c5ac63b46aca1d009d23f35d117e",
"wss://relay.mostr.pub"
],
[
"p",
"bc13e579bf49294633747700e25eb4f71d0c2aa134e89f30d36d7e1630e1bba3",
"wss://relay.mostr.pub"
],
[
"p",
"0a815c7a135490b945de4160425052fb4cd3e683e5a692950726a3afc0ec31f3",
"wss://relay.mostr.pub"
],
[
"e",
"3476196990a8b544a4d137ec4dabf532f815bc0cbd891e67ed47aa4c1bc402bf",
"wss://relay.mostr.pub",
"reply"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://mathstodon.xyz/users/TobyBartels/statuses/114311064961717666",
"activitypub"
],
[
"client",
"Mostr",
"31990:6be38f8c63df7dbf84db7ec4a6e6fbbd8d19dca3b980efad18585c46f04b26f9:mostr",
"wss://relay.mostr.pub"
]
],
"content": "nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqg7va94ywu9fjkh2y6sz90vcqwv00shpyfgy5ndy8ltq59sy6szpsr4pmdx nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqch8hfpny6tp95jqut4smklg3nx2h93dvvw6x4jsaqzwj8u6az9lq40qmju\n\nThat last one at least has a reasonable explanation. The ε here is supposed to be elasticity of demand (the derivative of the logarithm of quantity demanded with respect to the logarithm of price, that is p/q⋅dq/dp), and since this is (as I have defined it) almost always negative, both this and its opposite are called ‘elasticity’ in practice. (In the applied calculus textbook that my school uses, they actually define elasticity as the absolute value, but I tell my students that this is a bad idea since elasticity of demand is not *always* negative (and elasticity of supply is not always positive); it's reasonable to swap the sign for demand so that it will usually be positive, but the sign still gives you information.) So while it's careless, it's not unheard of to say first that elasticity of demand is negative and later that it's 4 (when you really mean that it's −4).\n\nWhat is unreasonable is to just make up a number out of whole cloth and pretend that it applies in every situation, just to balance out some other number that you made up out of whole cloth, all in a vain effort to retroactively justify your bullshit calculation.",
"sig": "eb45a81637add0d9ecce0079dfc37eee9d304c15ab9a4ee68c9ccdc53dc8181ccdb0caaa5ee7eb6be97179c96a1cc5de357ba5f27b512c567e9089ea31604c6c"
}