Scientific Experiment Results!

[telophase]

So, I've tallied up the results of the SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT from this post.

So...did the average of all of you guys' guesses get anywhere near the actual number of popcorn kernels in the Sanzo shot glass?





Oh, hell no. XD

The average of all the guesses: 189.78

The actual number: 312

[Poll #1082763]

ETA: The overall winner is pleonastic, with a guess of 301 kernels. Congratulations!

Comments

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I now feel much less dumb!!!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

:D I was quite surprised at the number of kernels in there, and I counted them in myself. XD

[derjmeister.livejournal.com]

I feel a little less dumb, but I don't feel that math is any less dumb!

[chibicharibdys.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's hard to guess from a picture, on account of lack of volume!

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

And I bet those kernels are surprisingly compact.

[chibicharibdys.livejournal.com]

Also, yanno, Sanzo.

[lady-noremon.livejournal.com]

:D

Only 249 kernels off!~

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Wow I was way off.

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

I've learned that I'm really bad at judging numbers. Oh well.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Pretty much everyone is - the point is that (well, when it comes to things in person and not photographs, it seems) while every individual person is pretty bad at judging numbers, in aggregate, the population manages to do it better.

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Wow. 312? I was 100 kernels off. It's hard to judge from a picture, I think. Looking at it again, it still seems like it would be impossible for there to be that many kernels in that tiny glass. Weeeiiird.

[the-z.livejournal.com]

SHOWS YOU WHAT THE BABY KNOWS! This will teach her to type for mommy.

Re: Scientific Experiment Results!

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

sanzo, ore no mono da! *pumps fist in air*

i'm good at all things spacial -- i can also tell you whether your entire apartment contents will fit into the uhaul you rented. before you start loading. :)

i am really surprised that people underestimated so badly. anyone who guessed under 100 obviously didn't even count what they could see to try and double-check however they made their estimate (did people think that would be "cheating"?). because when you do that, you get roughly 100. and it's obvious that one's seeing less than half the contents.

since i didn't know how large a shotglass is, and i have none at home, i was a bit handicapped as regards real volume calculation (i do think people overall might be better at this if they were familiar with the measure).

so i counted what i could see, and then estimated from there. after voting my guess i went to google for finding out a) shotglass volume and b) number of popcorn kernels per some measure i could convert.

man, there is a lot of popcorn math out there! popcorn must be a favourite in american elementary schools. turns out there are about 1600 kernels in a cup. shotglasses come in different sizes, but the most common one seems to be 1.5 oz. when one calculates based on that (1 cup = 8 oz, 1600 / 8 = 225), that size shotglass should contain about 225 * 1.5 = 337 kernels. after eyeballing the glass some more i decided my estimate was probably pretty close because the glass wasn't entirely full to the brim, but i thought it should be a few kernels more, like 310. didn't change it though because i didn't want to cheat.

Re: Scientific Experiment Results!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I think 3-D vizualization is pretty hard for a lot of people.

I don't recall ever getting to do anything with popcorn in school. XD

Re: Scientific Experiment Results!

[riofriotex.livejournal.com]

You're too old to have done this in school XD

I do remember doing such stuff with my son (parent volunteer in a lot of his classes, esp. grades 1-5, esp. math). He's 21 now.

I don't think I was too far off - can't remember my exact guess, about 263 or so I think.

Re: Scientific Experiment Results!

[riofriotex.livejournal.com]

oops, I was way off - guessed 168.

[chomiji]

Me and math ... it was never meant to be!

(I thought about blaming the new glasses, but I don't think I had them quite then.)

[melster.livejournal.com]

So this legitimately just came up in conversation between my boyfriend and I, and he thinks your kittyspam popcorn photo needs a caption.

...

Just thought I should share.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

But what caption, is the question. :D