Fun with logarithms. Or is it fun with exponents? At the rate at which we're headed....

[mahatmakanejeeves]

First of all, you can't honestly extrapolate in this manner. We won't keep going at this rate. So this is just an exercise.

Anyway, we've had a 20 percent decline from mid-February to mid-march. Say we started at 30,000 and went to 24,000. If we kept going at this rate, 30,000 in mid-February would be 19,200 by mid-April. What about mid-October?

On an RPN calculator, 0.8<enter>8<y to the x>30,000<times> gives you 5,033.

But it's just an exercise.

[cos dem]

1. At least that way it will never get to zero.

Asymptotically approaching zero, maybe.

[PJMcK]

2. Try going in the opposite direction

That's a more likely scenario, don't you think?

[yonder]

3. I don't have much to add. At least you were using an RPN.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. It was an app on a Kindle Fire. I did my taxes on my Kindle last year.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.efalk.rpncalc

or

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.efalk.rpncalc&hl=en_US

I'm sure you can put it on an Apple device too.

[yonder]

5. I've used HP's throughout my career. I probably have 10

or so around here, from 11c to 48g, and rarely let a chance go by without blabbing about the virtues of RPN logic.

Once onto them, it's tough to go back. This phone even has a 42 emulator which works pretty good.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. I have a 42 emulator on my Kindle as well.

"y to the x" is a secondary function, located above "1 over x," so it's not quite like a 10 or 15.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thomasokken.free42&hl=en

or

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thomasokken.free42

[yonder]

7. That's where it's at on the phone 42 also.

Yep, Free 42 is the one I use too. Recently, I stuck a 150 line program in it, not expecting it to work but so far, can't find any bugs. I think the developer did a good job with that.

[lastlib]

8. Here's the sequence extended to the end of the year--

2/15/20 30,000.00
3/15/20 24,000.00
4/15/20 19,200.00
5/15/20 15,360.00
6/15/20 12,288.00
7/15/20 9,830.40
8/15/20 7,864.32
9/15/20 6,291.46
10/15/20 5,033.16
11/15/20 4,026.53
12/15/20 3,221.23

If we kept up this rate, we would erase all the gains of the last quarter-century by the end of this year.

tRump bankrupted six businesses before becoming president. He may make the USA his seventh victim. And destroying our democracy along the way. It's no wonder Putin loves him.