MileyCyrus comments on Open Thread, September 1-15, 2012 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 01 September 2012 08:13AM

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Comment author: MileyCyrus 08 September 2012 02:44:21PM 1 point [-]

Poll: What is the smallest portion than be considered a "vast majority" of the whole? What about a "vast, vast majority"?

Comment author: TheOtherDave 08 September 2012 04:02:53PM 3 points [-]

You're asking a question about language use here, yes?

Depends on the context.
If 90% of U.S.voters voted for a particular policy proposal I would comfortably describe that as a "vast majority", but if only 90% of sulfur atoms remained in an unstoppered container of sulfur at STP I would describe that as a "startlingly small percentage".

On a minute's thought, I'd say 2 standard deviations above mean portion-size for the context under discussion.