it’s common to say something doubled (x2) or even quadrupled (x4) or quintupled (x5). The upper order of change are less frequently written in this form. The only exceptions are 10x, 100x, 1000x etc. and cannot be changed. What are often referred to as changes in the order of magnitude. In

my example a value was octupled. Is there a way to use this increase without the unenviable word “octuple”? ”

• “Increased 8x ( or 8 times ) seems more like informal speech being placed into text, but perhaps I’m wrong about that.

• Does the sentence “increased by an order of eight” actually work?

• What would it mean if “increased by a factor of 8″?

Why doesn’t the world stop learning about human resources?