NUMB3RS

We all use math everyday


to predict the weather


to tell time


to handle money


Math is more than formulas and equations


it's logic


it's rationality


it's using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know.


I guess that watching old episodes of this great show has inspired me. While I was walking home last night I was remembering a post that I made to the blog just after we arrived in India where I tried (poorly, I am sure) to describe the traffic in Bangalore. So it struck me that the best way to try to describe the sounds of the traffic would be to approach it scientifically, to count the number of seconds between each horn blow and pool the data. I conducted my little study on my street, Sanjaynagar, while walking from my bus stop to my gym (a 15 minute walk during rush hour). My street is not a main road, just a typical street. My methodology was quite basic, when a horn would blow, I would begin counting, one one-thousand, two one-thousand, etc. until the next horn blew. I roughly kept track of the relative number of such periods by grouping them into several categories such as less than one second between honks, 1-3 seconds between honks, etc. I then repeated the study after working out while walking home from the gym (another 15 minute walk, but over an hour later). I have compiled my data and have included it (in bar graph form) for your enjoyment (please remember that this is approximate, I might have taken out a pen and paper to keep an accurate account, but I fear that I might actually have been run over if my attention was not kept on the road ahead). The numbers that I am certain of fall at the extreme, that is, I am certain that during my walk to the gym, there was only one period of greater than 10 seconds (13 seconds to be precise) during which there was not a horn blown. That is it, one span of thirteen seconds of silence during a 15 minute walk. During my walk home later, there was not a single span of silence lasting longer than ten seconds. My a priori hypothesis was that there would be a lesser number of horn blows later in the day, meaning more periods of longer silence. My hypothesis has been disproven by the data, people become "hornier" the later in the evening it gets. After conducting my little study I was thinking of the traffic in sweet home Chicago. I have been stuck in some pretty hairy traffic driving in and out of the city to the suburbs, but I really don't remember anyone blowing their horns. I think that the bar graph constructed based on that data would be pretty boring, if any of you are bored you can keep track and send me the data and I will post it to do a side-by-side comparison (I guess you would have to be pretty bored to take me up on this). So next time you are driving down the street, where ever you may be, if you want to transport yourself to India, honk if you're "horny"!!!