'Times' vs 'x' for Numeric Data Displaying [closed]

Solution 1:

This answer, like the question, is probably off-topic, but I think as the question relates to precision in the use of words it is worth answering. As a former scientific educator, still active in research, I would say that both “reduced 42 times” and “reduced 42x” are ambiguous. Even “increased 42x” is unclear — does that mean from 100 to 4200 or from 100 to 4300? But I have absolutely no idea what the final value of something that was originally 100 and is reduced (as a chemist I would say decreased) 42 times. And if it is unclear to me it will be unclear to half the readers.

I have written a web resource for undergraduate science students that may be useful in this respect, but in brief I would write here (assuming my interpretation of the sentence fragment is correct):

This decreased the time to 2% (or whatever) of its original value.

or (using the same assumed value):

This decreased the time by 98%.

As regards increases, where percentages are preferable to times as the % symbol is not regarded as informal, I would suggest that for clarity a change from 100 to 4300 should be expressed as:

This increased the time to 4300% of its original value.

or

This increased the time by 4200% of its original value.

If one must use “times”, it is also possible in the case of increases (after dividing by 100). However I see no way of using it unambiguously for decreases.