Confusing Logic and Flawed Maths


MIC FINDS FLAWS IN KL DRAFT PLAN – Yahoo! Malaysia News

I am just confused. Here’s the excerpt from the linked news article, quoting MIC president, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu:

“The draft plan states that the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur has only about 160,000 Indians, which I find strange. We have some 80,000 registered voters in Kuala Lumpur.

“If one family had two children, then we have to multiply 80,000 by four. The figure will stand at 320,000 Indians.

Read full news article

I can understand what he said about not all Indians are registered voters. I also think the number in the draft plan is not accurate. However, I am confused by his logical deduction.

Hmm… If one family has two children, and there are 80,000 registered voters, aren’t we supposed to assume that in that family with two children, the norm would be that there will be two adults?

Based on the same argument by the good Datuk Seri, that we get the results by multiplying the registered voters with family size, shouldn’t we first divide the 80,000 by two, since the two adults of the family are registered voters? Then, we can get the number of families (40,000) and thus multiply with the number of assumed children per family (40,000 x 2 = 80,000).

When the two children times the number of families are added to the number of adults registered to vote, wouldn’t that comes up to 80,000 children plus 80,000 adults resulting in 160,000 as stated by the draft plan?

So, is Datuk Seri Samy Vellu saying that in most Indian families there’s only one adult? Or is he saying that there’s only one voter per Indian family, despite having two adults?

What I think this say is that he has a weak grasp of logics — or at least a personal aide with a weak grasp of logics (and maths).

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Reader Comments

wei, are u trying to understand samy vellu??..ayooo sapuluh kali masuk kubur pun belum tentu dapat lagi wooo

Well, a lot of people still consider him their leader… which I think says a bit about how these people are. As they say, politician-leaders usually can not be better than those they lead.

hi, thanks,The article was very well written, very helpful to me



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