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For our recent article on Fermi estimation (April 2009), we invited readers to guess the number of jelly beans in a cylindrical jar. Some wrote to us to gloat about their guesses. Others wondered how on Earth we came up with an exact total of 4,466 jelly beans. In truth, I counted every single bean by hand, marking each hundred on a scrap of paper. It took nearly two hours.
Here’s the real question: How long did it take 10 staff members to eat 4,466 jelly beans? (Hint: On average, I ate about 12 a day, four times more than anyone else.)
Submit your guesses in the comments below. I’ll post the answer there on Wednesday.
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Comments
May 18, 2009 1PM #
Did it take you until noon on the 115th day?
May 18, 2009 1PM #
Guess: 106 days
for me, alone, it would have taken less than a month.
May 18, 2009 1PM #
24.8 weeks?
May 18, 2009 1PM #
Answer: Nice work, DR. It took us nearly four months to eat all but one. No one ate Mr. Pear (above). Pears are the monarch butterflies of the jelly bean kingdom. Once you've tasted their awfulness, you learn to avoid that color.
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