How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?

[Richard Moody]

""| 150,000/(4 x 5 x 50) = 150, so that there must be about 150 piano
tuners in Chicago.""

| There seems to be a little problem with the math, here (duh).  4 x 5 x 50
=
| 1000, not 150, for starters.

The math is right as the formula reads, one hundred fifty thousand pianos
divided by 4 times five times fifty.    The little slash mark after 150,000
means "divide by"  so 150,000 divided by 4*5*50 does = 150.  The little *
means "multiply by".

"then in one year (52 weeks) he would service 1,500 pianos."


With a calculator 1,500 pianos serviced a year by each of the 150 tuners
quickly shows  225,000 pianos tuned in a year.  But it should be easier  to
realize that 1000 tuners tuning 150,000 pianos would only tune 150 pianos
each.
    I think it is a simple typoo---whoever wrote the article meant 1,000
per tuner but typed 1,500.
===ric


Reminds me of the time the news papers reported that the figures which
convinced the calif legislature to require fancy pump nozzels to prevent
gasoling fumes escaping had a digit wrong in the exponant of a formula, so
a 1000 times less gasoline went up in fumes  than figured.