Appendix

Readings and Materials

• Sanjoy Mahajan, The Art of Insight

• Weinstein, Guesstimation

Activities

Pizza Example

This is a simple example to illustrate estimation and modeling.

• We are going to spend money on pizza

• If we spend too much, we waste pizza

• If we spend too little, folks go hungry

• As you can see, the stakes are high

Pizza estimation

• Estimate how many pizzas it would take to feed this class?

• How did you arrive at your answer?

• Does it matter how accurate our estimate is?

• How accurate does our estimate need to be?

Important quantities

• How many people in the room

• How much pizza does the average person eat?

• Note that our numbers describe something physical

Set up computation

$\textrm{people} \cdot \textrm{pizzas per person} = \textrm{number of pizzas}$

Metta World Pizza

• Estimate how many pizzas it would take for a world-wide pizza party

• What were your assumptions?

Related estimations

• How much dough do we need?

• How many acres of wheat is that?

• How much cheese?

• How many cows is that?

World scale estimations

• The calculation to determine the dietary needs of all humans on the

  planet isn't that far from this method of estimation.

• How much land would this take?

Body Calibrations

For many simple units, it is useful to know lengths as they relate to you body.

• Inches and centimeters can be found on your hands

• How far up your body is a meter?

• What is a cubit?

• How long is your stride when walking?

• How fast do you walk?

Fermi Problems

• What is your estimate of the world population?

• How many students at Sonoma State?

• How many nail salons are there in Rohnert Park?

Body Estimations

Determine the parts of your body that are close to common measures of length.

• Centimeter

• Inch

• Meter

Also, your stride is a useful measurement for long distances. Walk at a natural pace and determine the length of your stride.

Making estimates

Using the length standards you have created with your body, estimate the following lengths and show your conversions.

• Length and width of your desk

• Length and width of the ETC

Example:

$3 \textrm{cubits} \cdot \frac{1.3 \textrm{feet}}{1 \textrm{cubits}} = 3.9 \textrm{feet}$

Use both metric and english units for each answer.