200 x (2 to the power of 5)

A little bit of dodgy maths in some copy submitted to us by one of our freelance writers today:

At fewer than 200 units a year, the UK market is small but set to double every year to reach 300 to 500 units a year within five years

Um, doubling 200 each year gives you 400 after one year, 800 after two years, 1,600 after three, 3,200 after four and 6,400 after five...

I was talking to Apus and we agreed that this sort of mistake is one of the hardest to spot when you are subbing. Typos, grammatical errors and inconsistencies jump out at you, but dubious figures and illogical arguments can be read through much more easily – especially when you are focusing on the language rather than the meaning.

But I caught this one, so that's OK.