I'm no mathematician and it wouldn't often be my choice of phrasing, but it seems unambiguous and clear to me; your definition is much stranger/less intuitive to me.
We're clear on 'x is two times larger than y', right?
x = 2*y
An equivalent statement is 'y is two times smaller than x', but it conveys a construction more like:
y = x/2
Which, since we're speaking English sentences, might change the emphasis/implication.
We're clear on 'x is two times larger than y', right?
An equivalent statement is 'y is two times smaller than x', but it conveys a construction more like: Which, since we're speaking English sentences, might change the emphasis/implication.