3rd degree assessment of unemployment
le Monde, a few days ago, had as its front page title “l’augmentation du chômage s’accélère“, which translates as “the increase of the unemployment rate speeds up“… Given that an increase is an indicator of positive speed, i.e. a first degree derivative, and that speeding up is an indicator of acceleration, hence of a second degree derivative, le Monde is able to assess the third degree derivative of the unemployment trend, nothing less! (The rapid increase of unemployment is anything but funny, though.)
September 4, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Nixon is said to have claimed in 1972 that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing, thus using the third derivative to argue for his re-election. (http://www.ams.org/notices/199610/page2.pdf)