title: Coerce to number
body: <p>I have often seen the trick</p>
  
  <pre><code>after = +after;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>to coerce the variable <code>after</code> to a number. Reading through the <a href="https://github.com/joyent/node/blob/master/lib/timers.js#L188" rel="noreferrer">Node.JS source</a> I found another method:</p>
  
  <pre><code>after *= 1; // coalesce to number or NaN
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Are the two methods strictly equivalent in their behaviour?</p>