Why is .005 cents actually .08 cents on a Pepsi? Is that first one actually a percentage?

If anyone could use a diet drink (and maybe a ball-gag), it's Mitch Greenlick...

I read it as 8/100ths of a cent. That math works out if you assume the Pepsi is around a $1.50, anyway.

Time to start selling Mitch Greenlickmyballs t-shirts. Apparently he's the Democratic rep from NW Portland. I don't care who he's running against, I'm sending that person $100.

btw, a cup of apple juice or orange juice has more calories than a Coke or Pepsi. There is nothing redeeming about 100% juice. Even the vitamins that they have, including vitamin C, are largely added, not natural.

I don't think taxing soda pop is the right way to go about what he's trying to do.

This is a common mathematical error. I think the bill actually reads it as $0.005 per ounce (that is, .005 DOLLARS, or half a cent per ounce).

Hence, on a 16-ounce Pepsi, 8 cents.

For a hilarious look at confusion about the difference between cents and dollars: http://tinyurl.com/y45chh

They need a fat tax. $100 for every pound of body fat each year. It will be fun to see all the naked people weighing in at the Multnomah building.

Sorry for the confusion -- it's a .005 cent tax PER OUNCE. I'll add that in now, seeing as it's supremely unclear.

Sarah - thanks for adding in the per ounce.

But to RE-clarify - the rate is not .005 CENTS per ounce, it's .005 DOLLARS per ounce. That is, it's 0.5 cents per ounce -- "at a rate of $0.005 per ounce."

Converting between dollars and cents -- and you're changing by two orders of magnitude, hence you have to move the decimal point over by two if you want to talk in cents instead of dollars.