Monday 10th March
It is sometimes acceptable to use a percentage in excess of 100, for example when quoting a very high interest rate of the sort used by pay-day loan companies, where the repayment in a year actually exceeds the original loan. So if one borrowed £100 and the interest repayment was £200, then the percentage would be 200. However this is because the percentage rate is describing not the original loan but simply the interest payable.
It is not acceptable however to use more than 100 percent to describe a portion of something. If the whole of something is being used or counted it is 100%. So, when a sportsperson or a contestant on X factor is trying very hard to win they could theoretically be using 100 percent of their energy, though they would probably collapse on the floor in the process, but they cannot use 110% as is commonly claimed. Also to be strictly pedantic, when they do say they are giving it 100%, 100% of what exactly is it they are giving and what is the ‘it’ they are giving to? However we sort of know what they mean.
Which is more than can be said for an advert I just saw on TV. Those of you of a nervous disposition should turn away now as this was an advert for Always sanitary pads. The advert claimed that new Ultra Always was now up to 100% leak-proof. Firstly this implies that old Ultra Always were not, so they must have been inferior, presumably they leaked, which sort of misses the point. But to state that they are up to 100% leak-proof is a bit meaningless. As shown above they cannot be more than 100% anyway, and as to being leakproof something is either leakproof or it isn’t. Either they leak or they don’t; and no-one wants to buy them if they do leak surely. But the term up to 100% has no value – it could be 1% 0r 99% or anything in between. The manufacturer has absolved themselves from any responsibility and might as well have stated that we don’t know if they leak or not but if they do we don’t know by how much. Though with the product we are talking about any leaking, 1 or 100 percent can be a disaster. Just thought I would point this out to the unwary purchaser.