1 / 17

Fun with Fermi Problems

Named after the Italian-American University of Chicago professor and noted 20th century physicist and Nobel Prize-winner Fermi problems are math word problems that require making educated guesses using estimation skills and prior knowledge Fermi problems are solved by breaking the complex problem

sapphire
Download Presentation

Fun with Fermi Problems

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

    2. Named after the Italian-American University of Chicago professor and noted 20th century physicist and Nobel Prize-winner Fermi problems are math word problems that require making educated guesses using estimation skills and prior knowledge Fermi problems are solved by breaking the complex problem into smaller ones and using estimation skills to continuously refine your answer So who was Enrico Fermi and what are Fermi Problems?

    3. and whats so much fun about them?

    4. Piano Tuners: 2.0m people / 5 per family / 1 out of 5 have a piano = 80,000 pianos Piano gets tuned on average every 3 years = 26,667 tuned every year Takes on average 2 hours to tune a piano One tuner can tune 4 pianos in a day 5 days per week * 50 work weeks per year = 1000 pianos tuned per year per tuner # pianos needng tuning every year / # pianos tuned per year per tuner = 26,667 / 1000 = there should be approx. 26.67 piano tuners in Chicago 1940 Chicago phone book listed 27 wow teachable moment Hot dogs at Yankee Stadium: How many games = 81 regular season + 11 (playoff max) = est. 86 How many people in Yankee Stadium = est. 56,000 Total possible hot dog eaters = 86 * 56000 = 4,816,000 What percentage of people get hot dogs = 25% What percentage of people getting hot dogs get two hot dogs = 25% 4,816,000 * .25 + 4816000*.25* .25 = 1,204,000 + 301,000 = 1,505,000 ACTUAL NUMBER PER GOOGLE = 1,365,000 in 2005 per http://www.hotdogchicagostyle.com/funfacts.php Piano Tuners: 2.0m people / 5 per family / 1 out of 5 have a piano = 80,000 pianosPiano gets tuned on average every 3 years = 26,667 tuned every year Takes on average 2 hours to tune a pianoOne tuner can tune 4 pianos in a day 5 days per week * 50 work weeks per year = 1000 pianos tuned per year per tuner # pianos needng tuning every year / # pianos tuned per year per tuner = 26,667 / 1000 = there should be approx. 26.67 piano tuners in Chicago 1940 Chicago phone book listed 27 wow teachable moment Hot dogs at Yankee Stadium: How many games = 81 regular season + 11 (playoff max) = est. 86 How many people in Yankee Stadium = est. 56,000 Total possible hot dog eaters = 86 * 56000 = 4,816,000 What percentage of people get hot dogs = 25%What percentage of people getting hot dogs get two hot dogs = 25%4,816,000 * .25 + 4816000*.25* .25 = 1,204,000 + 301,000 = 1,505,000ACTUAL NUMBER PER GOOGLE = 1,365,000 in 2005 per http://www.hotdogchicagostyle.com/funfacts.php

More Related