by a factor of 5

[EngLearner]

I came across the phrase "by a factor of 5." I'd like to know if I understand the meaning of it correctly. For example, if I shrink 10 by a factor of 5, I will get 2. Is my understanding correct? If not, how should the phrase be interpreted?

 

[teechar]

I came across the phrase "by a factor of 5."

Where? Give us the sentence and cite it properly please.

 

[SoothingDave]

Yes, you have the idea. It's more commonly used as a multiple and not a fraction. "Sales of Coke outpaced generics sodas by a factor of 5" means Coke sold 5 times as much as the others.

 

[EngLearner]

Where? Give us the sentence and cite it properly please.

Source: "Markov Chain Monte Carlo in Practice" by W.R. Gilks, S. Richardson and D.J. Spiegelhalter.

It has sometimes been suggested that inferences should be based on every k-th iteration of each sequence, with k set to some value high enough that successive draws of Q are approximately independent. This strategy, known as thinning, can be useful when the set of simulated values is so large that reducing the number of simulations by a factor of k gives important savings in storage and computation time.