The other day I heard a reporter talk about something (can't remember what it was) that had increased "many, many, many, many orders of magnitude".

My understanding is that an order of magnitude is a factor of 10, since that's the base system we commonly use. And to me, 'many' would be - well - let's say at least seven. So here's me thinking he's talking about an increase by a factor of say 7x7x7x7x10 = 24010.

Turns out it was about 3 times.

Anyone else got some favourite examples of misrepresentation of maths?

Or for that matter science in general if you like, since I just thought of this pearler I heard on the TV weather report: "Tomorrow Melbourne will reach 15 degrees [C]. Brisbane will be twice as hot with 30."