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In my paper I will use the phrase "A is 4 times as large as B" very often. I find this tedious. Is there some more elegant way to express the idea?

Andrew Leach
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Zongyi Zhao
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    Welcome to EL&U. You seem to be asking for writing advice, and "best" is rather subjective, so this question may be put on hold, so I might ask this: if it is tedious, why is it necessary to repeat so often? Is it not enough to have "B is one fourth as big as A" or "B is one quarter the size of A" or "A is quadruple the size of B"? – choster Dec 02 '14 at 02:46
  • Somewhat related: x times as many as or x times more than. – Sven Yargs Dec 02 '14 at 04:37
  • @choster I am sorry but I have many experiments and I have to give statements like "A is 4 times as large as B", "A is 5 times as large as B" and etc. "A is quadruple the size of B" will be a better choice. Thank you. – Zongyi Zhao Dec 02 '14 at 05:41
  • @choster That's terrible. Even if I could say "A is quadruple the size of B" instead of the tedious sentence "A is 4 times as large as B", what should I say for "A is 8 times as large as B", "A is 16 times as large as B", etc? – Zongyi Zhao Dec 02 '14 at 05:46
  • Then please edit your question. In your question you say you will use the phrase "4 times as large" choster was responding to that request. Give more than one example so that users cannot misinterpret your question. Note also that the title is very specific and restrictive. – Mari-Lou A Dec 02 '14 at 07:14
  • Rolled back edit as it merely repeated the first paragraph. – Andrew Leach Dec 02 '14 at 10:42

1 Answers1

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If A is 24, and B is 6, then

A is 4 times greater than B.

A is 4 times the size of B.

A is the product of 4 and B.
(24 is the product of 4 and 6.)

A is 4 times B.
(24 is 4 times 6.)

A is 4 multiplied by B.
(24 is 4 multipled by 6.)

pazzo
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