How does this calculation work? (Technician Scizor Bullet Punch)?

Question

So my question here is, how does technician add up with STAB?
40 * 10.5 * 1.5 is 90, but 40*3 is 120.

Comments

http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/22466/bullet-punch-on-scizor

^ Basically the same thing, just refer to it

Answer 1

Technician and STAB are multipliers on damage in general, not base power specifically. So it's not really kosher to multiply those things together like you did (and like I'm about to), but in the end, it only matters for a little bit of rounding.

40 (base power) * 1.5 (STAB) * 1.5 (Technician) = 90 is an accurate approximation of the base power. 40 * 3 is wrong because multipliers should be chained together, not added first.

Before you go around saying "it's stronger than Iron Head!" remember that STAB Iron Head can be approximated to 120 base power by the same logic.

Answer 2

damage modifiers are multipliers. You appear to have ADDED 1.5 and 1.5 to get 3. This is incorrect. it would be 1.5 MULTIPLIED by 1.5 to give you 2.25. Multiply this by 40 and you still get 90