My mom always talks about approximating and simplifying things to get an answer quickly!
Apparently a scientist named Fermi was very good at that. Ask him any question and he could come up with a pretty good answer!
So the problems that can be solved using simplification and approximation and thinking about them, are called Fermi problems.
They are kind of fun to do; two that we recently did while driving to the temple were how many golf balls can you fit in a suitcase and how many strollers there are in Los Angeles.
The one that I did all by myself was how many jelly beans can you fit in a gallon jug and how many light bulbs does a 2 bedroom house have!
Sonya
March 24th, 2007
I’ll add the Fermi problems as I do them.
what is the length of the noodles in the Raman noodle package?
How much water a person drinks in a life time?
How many cups of water in a bath?
Sonya
April 2nd, 2007
How many times do you have to pump a foot pump to inflate a basket ball. This is something that can be measured so one can figure out the answer and compare it.
Sonya
April 2nd, 2007
How many oranges on an orange tree. (saw one today and we guessed it and counted the number later)
Sonya
April 2nd, 2007
This is a good Fermi problem: If you straightened out each of the lines in all of your writing, how long a line would you write in a day.
Sonya
April 2nd, 2007
How many pairs of shoes there are in Los Angeles area? This is a great Fermi problem.
Sonya
April 9th, 2007
Nice Fermi problem. How many drops of water in a water bottle. Another variation, how many drops of chocolate in a Hershey syrup bottle.
Sonya
April 9th, 2007
How much distance your computer mouse travel if you are playing a game? This is similar to how long would the line be if you straightened out all the writing you have done in a day.
Sonya
April 9th, 2007
If tooth ferry leaves a quarter for each tooth she finds under a pillow; how much money does she give out in one year?
Sonya
April 9th, 2007
How many revolution a car tire make in one year?
Sonya
April 9th, 2007
This is a good one! How many pages will it take to cover a wall in your bedroom? How many pages would you need to make a stack that would reach the ceiling of your bedroom.
Sonya
April 9th, 2007
Nice Fermi Problem: How many raisins are there in a cereal box that says “two scoops of raisins!”
Sonya
April 19th, 2007
Great estimation/approximation Fermi problems that we solved on our recent trip.
(i) How many trees does it take to make the amount of paper that one uses in one year.
(ii) How much ore would one need to process to make the number of cans of soft drinks that one drinks in one year.
Sonya
April 19th, 2007
Easy Fermi problem: amount of thread in a bed sheet.
Queen bed: 60″x80″ (200 thread count) ans: about 15 miles?
Sonya
April 19th, 2007
How much paint will it take to paint the white house or an average house.
Talk Like A Physicist » Blog Archive » Peparing for Talk Like a Physicist Day - 14 March
September 23rd, 2007
[...] (4) Fermi Problems. [...]
Allan McLemore
June 15th, 2008
Software companies love to ask questions like “How many gas stations are in Cleveland?”. Here’s my thoughts on why they do this: http://www.zenternal.com/weblog/index.php/2008/06/15/fermi-problems-ie-how-many-iphones-are-in-austin/
Carol King
June 19th, 2008
How much unpopped popcorn would you need to buy to fill the principal’s office with popped corn? We do this one every year and the kids love it.
Sonya
November 27th, 2008
you need 1/10 of the size of the office because it becomes 10 times bigger when you pop it.