JellyBeans!!!!
Okay, this is how nerdy me and some of my friends are... tonight... for the last 6-7 hours, we've been camped out at Barnes and Noble for the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Why? Because we're nerds (like a bajillion other people).
As a part of the whole gala there were games, a palm reader/psychic, contests, and building your own wand and stuff. So we get there and wait in line to get our numbers... and there's a trivia contest, which we fill out (open book-like)... and a random name drawing from the "goblet of fire", which we entered... and also the great green JellyBean jar!!!
Now, as engineers... the first thing that pops into our minds is "hey, we can calculate that!"... and so, we eyeballed the approximate width (it varied in width, so we took and average) and height (which we varied so we could get 3 chances to win) and with the help of the Barnes and Noble calculator (which one employee loaned us after seeing us struggle with a cellphone calculator)... we calculated the approximate volume of the jar and after we approximated the volume of a single jelly bean... we then divided the jar volume by the jellybean volume and came up with 3 different answers, which we then rounded.
And LO! At the end of the evening... one of our calculations won!!! We were 7 off, but we won the jellybean goodness in the great green, curving jar with a cool lamp-like lid.
2,200 Jellybeans!
Engineering rocks! I have to say... I never was as proud of my major as I am at this moment in time. This one will go down in history! =)
*huggles the jen-jen and jen, partners in calculations!!*
As a part of the whole gala there were games, a palm reader/psychic, contests, and building your own wand and stuff. So we get there and wait in line to get our numbers... and there's a trivia contest, which we fill out (open book-like)... and a random name drawing from the "goblet of fire", which we entered... and also the great green JellyBean jar!!!
Now, as engineers... the first thing that pops into our minds is "hey, we can calculate that!"... and so, we eyeballed the approximate width (it varied in width, so we took and average) and height (which we varied so we could get 3 chances to win) and with the help of the Barnes and Noble calculator (which one employee loaned us after seeing us struggle with a cellphone calculator)... we calculated the approximate volume of the jar and after we approximated the volume of a single jelly bean... we then divided the jar volume by the jellybean volume and came up with 3 different answers, which we then rounded.
And LO! At the end of the evening... one of our calculations won!!! We were 7 off, but we won the jellybean goodness in the great green, curving jar with a cool lamp-like lid.
2,200 Jellybeans!
Engineering rocks! I have to say... I never was as proud of my major as I am at this moment in time. This one will go down in history! =)
*huggles the jen-jen and jen, partners in calculations!!*