https://www.yahoo.com/movies/just-how-b … 26582.html

"   $8.15: The average cost* of a large bucket popcorn (with free refill)
    90¢: The estimated cost of the raw goods needed to make it, per McKenzie’s research
That’s a markup of nearly 90 percent from kernel to consumption."

Yeah OK, I know not everyone is "good" at math, but I always thought some basic skills were necessary to graduate from elementary school. Of course, I'm in my 30s and I have no doubt education is not what it used to be
Anyone here teach K-12? You have my sympathy...

In all fairness, I think everyone gets caught up in percentages at times. I think it's more of an oversight than lack of basic math skills. It actually took me a minute to see what the issue was.

The irony is a headline about a 900% markup would be more attention grabbing.

Could be a typo, maybe?

Yes, I'm sure that was an oversight as well.  A rather unfortunate one, however, as it's a major error in what seems to be the answer to the actual title of the article.

Still... basic math skills ARE lacking in many, MANY individuals.  I teach high school math.  The number of kids that need a calculator in Algebra and Geometry to calculate "10-0" or "5(1)" is astounding.  And don't even get me started on the number of kids who can't tell the difference between a side and an angle in a triangle.

She makes similar mistake three times in a row. That is not a typo, it is a lack of understanding basic math. I know that it's certainly possible to make "silly" errors especially when tired, but if you're going to publish something for the whole world to see it may not hurt to double check.

Technically, that is on the editor then. What's scary is that got by several people.

Actually, and correct me if I'm wrong here, because my math is rusty too, but shouldn't this be a markup of about 800%?

I mean, if the price was $1.80 (i.e. double), that would be a markup of 100%, not 200%, right?
If the price was exactly the same, that would be a markup of 0%, is what I'm saying, so a 100% markup would be double the price, and therefore 9 times the price would be an 800% markup.

No?

Correct.

From past experience, a lot of people have trouble understanding increases greater than 100%.  I'm in a fairly math-intensive field, and I've seen a number of people make the mistake of thinking that a 200% mark-up means that that the selling price is double the cost.

That is an understandable mistake. Honestly, if the author had made that mistake originally, almost nobody would have noticed/cared. However, she really had no clue what she was doing. None. It appears that after being bombarded with comments she "corrected" her mistake. The sad thing is, many people read an article like that and are "oh, OK, yeah I guess that's a lot"... without really thinking about it. Here in the US, students were supposed to have learned this in elementary school. Of course, I wonder how many college students actually know how to do it (I'm getting cynical at my old age

One classic math goof that has always stuck with me was in an early season of the Simpsons. Homer is discussing buying a pony for Lisa from a lady that works at the stable and she first quotes him for "half a million" dollars. A few lines later, she says the pony is $5000. I was early along enough in math that I thought "half a million" = $5000 from that. I still wonder how that happened.