An Ad for a New Heartburn Treatment Says That It

Multiple Choice

An ad for a new heartburn treatment says that it "reduces heartburn by 300%." What does this mean?

A) It means that there is 3 times as much heartburn before using the treatment as there is after using it.
B) It means there is only seven-tenths as much heartburn after using the treatment because 300/1000 = 0.3, or three-tenths.
C) It's nonsense because removing 100% of the heartburn already removes all of it.
D) It's nonsense because heartburn is a categorical variable, so percents don't make sense.
E) It's nonsense because percents only make sense for counts, and amount of heartburn isn't a count.