[itsanaccrualworld]

For defining a sampling unit, why does the population of consecutively numbered documents equal the difference between the beginning and ending numbers plus one?

FAR - 75
REG - 69, September 16
BEC - 80
AUD - 69, October 16

[Anonymous]

Cause when you subtract things that are numbered, it basically doesn't count both the beginning and ending ones. Think of months in the year… You've got Jan – Dec, sequentially numbered 1 – 12. Subtracted 1 from 12, leaves you with 11. However, there's 12 months, as you know, so you've got to add 1 to get the total number of months in the year. Same if you do a partial year; ex: the 3rd quarter is the period from month 7 through month 9. How many months? Subtract: 9 = 7 = 2. Add 1: 2 + 1 = 3. 3 months in the 3rd quarter.

Of course when dealing with months, this sort of math is overcomplicating. 🙂 But, it's an easy way to illustrate why sequential numbering “misses” one if you simply subtract.

[itsanaccrualworld]

No thats a good explanation, thanks I appreciate it! I think i was just about brain dead last night trying to figure it out haha

FAR - 75
REG - 69, September 16
BEC - 80
AUD - 69, October 16

[Author]

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