Re: Fermi method and "hemibel thinking"?

Article View: bit.listserv.physhare

Article #93

Back to bit.listserv.physhare Previous Next

#93

From: David Lunney
Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 00:00

18 lines
1236 bytes

The postings on the Fermi method (in which a rough guess at a quantity
is deemed to be better than no number at all) reminded me of a piece I
read in the Scientific American many years ago on "hemibel thinking", in
which the object of the game is to arrive at estimates within about a
factor of three, rather than a factor of 10 (or 100, or 1000). I believe
the method arose in strategic game-playing done in by the US military
establishment and their various think tanks: I have no idea who
originated it.

Has anybody else heard of this method?

David Lunney
Department of Chemistry
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858 USA
VOICE: 919-758-6453  919-328-6713
FAX: 919-758-0967  919-328-6210
CHLUNNEY@ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU (internet)

Technical Details

Message-ID: <PHYSHARE%95051513013182@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!unknown!not-for-mail

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 16cfd8,aecff1b65e42e241,start
X-Google-Attributes: gid16cfd8,public
From: David Lunney <CHLUNNEY@ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Fermi method and "hemibel thinking"?
Date: 1995/05/15
Message-ID: <PHYSHARE%95051513013182@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>
X-Deja-AN: 102755699
sender: Sharing resources for high school physics <PHYSHARE@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>
comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
newsgroups: bit.listserv.physhare