Why is our supermarket line always look slow than others?
1996 Ignobel Physics Winner English physicist Robert Mathews explained in an interview CNN Because we always have the impression that our line in the supermarket is slow than others.
This phenomenon is very common. You fill your shopping cart and carefully choose the line that looks fast, wherever you have fewer people or users to cross the cashier, to get rid of the work fast. When waiting, you often realize that you have made the wrong decision and that another row is going faster than you.
Aston University Professor in Birmingham, Midwest of England explained that the problem is the frame. When selecting the queue, you will immediately tend to compare them to the right and left side. That is, there is only 33% chance of walking fast.
“Three lines are subject to random delaying. They cannot find something price or people are trying to find their credit card. So, on any simple trip to the supermarket, you, you and each side of the three lines, have this delay,” Mathews explained.
“But to overcome your neighbors, the chances of the line you have chosen are only one of the three. Only one end one and it is not yours. It’s one or the other one of your neighbors.”
Physic brings a math solution so that the chances of your row will increase faster: you have to choose the last row in a corner of the supermarket and therefore only the neighboring line. Therefore, its comparison will decrease and its chances increase from 33 to 50%.
“The chances of overcome your neighbors have increased your neighbors three to one to one, because there is only another line.”
Robert Matthews He explained that the same logical applies to the traffic lanes of the road. All of this is subject to the same random and therefore does not mean that you are changing the track without knowing what caused a specific distinction such as risk or anything.
“If you are on the road and do not understand the delay in the three lines, it is not a big meaning to jump to another. It is not worth trying to get to what is spoiled,” the scientist argued.
Who is Robert Mathews?
The English physicist Robert Mathews was perceived with the 1996 Ignobel Physics Award for drinking of Mathews Murphy, that is, why, a drink is always on the side of butter.
Britain was born in the city of Carshalton to London in London and graduated from the University of Oxford in 1991. He served as a classical spread journalist and has now joined the Auston University staff at Birmingham, Midwest England.
In his work, Mathews used mathematics and physics, which explained an equation to the drinking of Murphy, named after it, the hand of the famous law of Murphy, which tells it that everything that can be done is wrong.
Recently, invited him to enter the way to return and Create a drinking one that always falls from the face. Since the table should be at 3 meters high to complete a toast turn, the physic decided to test different toast formats.
Choosing a small, slightly lightweight drinking solution to the edge to prevent rotation when it reaches the edge of the surface.
Watch the video that describes the project:
