Lee, I’m confident that you’d find that “97 is approximately 100” seems more natural to most people than “100 is approximately 99″. As for the percentage differences, (1) why should the percentage difference be the thing to focus on rather than the absolute difference, and (2) why do it that way around? (Only, I think, because of the effect I mentioned above: when you say “X is approximately Y” you’re implicitly suggesting Y as a standard of comparison, because it’s useful for that purpose one way or another.)
Lee, I’m confident that you’d find that “97 is approximately 100” seems more natural to most people than “100 is approximately 99″. As for the percentage differences, (1) why should the percentage difference be the thing to focus on rather than the absolute difference, and (2) why do it that way around? (Only, I think, because of the effect I mentioned above: when you say “X is approximately Y” you’re implicitly suggesting Y as a standard of comparison, because it’s useful for that purpose one way or another.)