What is your favorite estimation exercise?

Question

A fun question I ask students or interviewees (in engineering) is:

This is not my question, this is an example:
Using only what you know now, how many cans of soda would you estimate are produced per day (on average) in the United States?

For this question, the result doesn't matter so much as the process you use.

In this theme of estimation, what's your favorite question?

I voted to close because I don't think this question is math-related. No math-related answers either. — Larry Wang, Jul 31 '10 at 09:03

score 18 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '10 at 16:39

18

"How many estimation questions are asked in interviews across the world during a typical 24h period?"

answered Jul 30 '10 at 16:39

rgrig

1,002

10

I see what you did there... – Michael Haren Jul 30 '10 at 16:46
3

I find it bothersome that out of all answers I posted on this site, this "smartass answer" is by far the most up-voted. – rgrig Jul 31 '10 at 13:16

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 31 '10 at 06:48

4

One that I remember from some book (I think it was Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos) was "How fast does your hair grow, in miles per hour?"

answered Jul 31 '10 at 06:48

Tyler

3,067

This seems more like a factor-label problem to me, but I like it – Michael Haren Apr 08 '11 at 02:58

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 30 '10 at 17:33

0

I like "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop".

answered Jul 30 '10 at 17:33

BBischof

5,807

What is your favorite estimation exercise?

3 Answers3