This isn't how math works. The hand towel, or whatever, isn't 3x smaller, it's one third the size. And it doesn't dry 3x faster because we're not measuring velocity, we're measuring time. So if it's drying "faster", it's taking less time. Saying "3 times" implies multiplication, and the product of the multiplication of integers isn't smaller, it's larger. Always. To express that something is smaller would be the quotient of a division. So, the hand towel is 1/3 the size and dries in 1/3 of the time. You could maybe say that it's 66% smaller and dries 66% faster, but I don't know if that's right either.
I don't know. It just bugs me every time I hear or read something like this. It's right up there with saying, "I could care less." I just read it in an article about the Amazon Satellite Internet service that's coming.
The company has consolidated the hardware into a prototype that measures 12 inches in diameter, “making it three times smaller and proportionately lighter than legacy antenna designs,” it said.
I just feel like they should know better. But, again, I know that an engineer didn't write the article, some one on the sales/marketing team did. And, when they say "three times smaller", do they mean that the legacy designs were 36"x36" and these measure 1/3 of that on a side? Because if that's what they're saying, then the new ones are 9 times smaller. lol