[2068] in Humor
HUMOR: The Dollar
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (abennett@MIT.EDU)
Wed May 14 13:57:04 1997
From: <abennett@MIT.EDU>
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 13:52:54 EDT
From: mkhusid@MIT.EDU (Michael Khusid )
From: Dimitri Lisin <dima@owl.WPI.EDU>
Date: Wed, 14 May 97 9:36:56 EDT
From: George Heineman <heineman@cs.WPI.EDU>
Subject: Experiment and its results
After another theft of equipment from the PEDS lab on May 9th, I
decided to carry out an experiment to determine how long a dollar bill
would survive on my bulletin board. This is not necessarily a good
indicator for integrity or lack of theft, but the cost for materials
seemed right.
QUESTION: How long can a single US dollar bill survive on my
-------- bulletin board?
MATERIALS: 1 (one) legal tender US dollar bill, three metal tacks
---------
DIAGRAM:
-------
+---------------------------------------+
| 1 The United States of America 1 |
| _____ |
| _ / \ A 34617430B |
| |A| | "\" | |
| - \ | / |
| | | | |
| / \\ \ |
| 1 ONE DOLLAR 1 |
+---------------------------------------+
DATA:
----
10 May 97 2:00 PM Attached Dollar Bill to bulletin board
12 May 97 9:00 AM Present and accounted for
12 May 97 5:15 PM Present and accounted for
13 May 97 9:00 AM Present and accounted for
13 May 97 2:00 PM Surprisingly another Dollar Bill
has appeared next to the original!
One more and this will be a movement
13 May 97 5:15 PM Two dollars present and accounted for
14 May 97 9:00 AM --- Dollars missing ---
CHARTS:
------
3 | Total value of bulletin board over time
|
$$ 2 | o-.
| | |
1 | o---o---o---o-" |
| |
+---+---+---+---+---o------>
1 2 3 4 5
Day
INTERPRETATION:
--------------
We actually have two values to report. The first Dollar Bill (D1) lasted
approximately 91 hours, while the second unexpected Dollar Bill (D2) lasted
only 19 hours. Assuming that D1 and D2 are identical in both appearance
and value -- and thus neither one is more likely to be taken -- we
calculate the average life to be:
55 hours, with a standard deviation of 50.9.
With 95 percent confidence, the actual lifetime is 55 +/- 70.55 hours.
Theoretically, therefore, it may have disappeared from my wallet 15.55
hours before I placed it on the wall.
POST MORTEM:
-----------
More accurate results may no doubt be obtained during a regular term.
We are in the process of applying for funding to repeat this
experiment in A term. I am reminded of a loose definition of
integrity that states:
"Integrity is not picking your fellowman's pocket".
-- george
