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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > General Talk > I have an idea for a useful scientific study
I have an idea for a useful scientific study  [message #40645] Sun, 21 January 2007 20:19 Go to previous message
Deeej is currently offline  Deeej

Needs to get a life!
Location: Berkshire, UK
Registered: March 2005
Messages: 3281



When one have a single pen, that pen will disappear within a certain amount of time (let's call it d, for average disappearance time). It might fall on the floor, or disappear under something, or get swiped by a colleague. I assume that it's in some way proportional to the size of the room (s, for size), for there are more places for it to go in a larger room. When one has lost one's pen (which is a statistical near-certainty) it takes a certain amount of time to find it again (let's call that f, for average time to find it).

Okay so far?

When one has two pens, the same applies for each -- it will disappear on average after d amount of time. But when one comes to look for it one will find at least one of them within half of d. Thus, though one can only use one pen at a time, there is an obvious advantage to having two pens as it means one can find one more quickly.

My question is this: can someone do a study to establish what d, f and also n (the time it takes to reach out and take a pen without frustration setting in) are for a specific or average person, and then produce an equation so that for a given size of room (s) one can work out the pen saturation point, p: the number of pens required to ensure that one will always have a pen to hand when one wants one?

David
 
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