Wait/walk dilemma
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The Wait/walk dilemma occurs when waiting for a bus at a bus stop, when the duration of the wait may exceed the time needed to arrive at a destination by another means, especially walking. The dilemma has been studied in an unpublished report entitled Walk Versus Wait: The Lazy Mathematician Wins.[1][2] Anthony B. Morton's recent paper A Note on Walking Versus Waiting supports and extends Chen et al.'s results.[3] Cyrus Aghamolla and Alexander Limonov's recent manuscript, Walk Versus Wait: A Study in Triviality, presents an abstract statistical argument which trivially justifies the work of Chen et al.[4] Ramnik Arora's A Note on Walk versus Wait: Lazy Mathematician Wins points out and fixes some of the errors in Chen et al.'s argument; the result of Chen et al.'s paper still holds following Arora's corrections.[5]
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[edit] Walk Versus Wait: The Lazy Mathematician Wins
Harvard mathematics major Scott D. Kominers first began fixating on the problem while walking from MIT to Harvard,[1] which are more than a mile apart in Cambridge, Massachusetts along MBTA bus route 1. He enlisted the help of Caltech physics major Justin G. Chen and Harvard statistics major Robert W. Sinnott to perform the analysis.[1]
Their paper concludes that it is usually mathematically quicker to wait for the bus, at least for a little while. But the decision to walk should be final as opposed to waiting again at subsequent stops.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Bierman, Noah (2008-02-03). Cellphones remain mum in tunnels. The Boston Globe.
- ^ Lazy option is best when waiting for the bus. New Scientist Magazine (2008-01-23).
- ^ A Note on Walking Versus Waiting (2008-02-25).
- ^ Walk Versus Wait: A Study in Triviality (2008-03-02).
- ^ A Note on Walk versus Wait: Lazy Mathematician Wins (2008-03-21).
[edit] External links
Walk Versus Wait: The Lazy Mathematician Wins (PDF)
A Note on Walking Versus Waiting (PDF)
A Note on Walk versus Wait: Lazy Mathematician Wins (PDF)
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