I have asked this bit of trivia to dozens of friends and strangers as a mental math estimation exercise. The answer will obviously based on statistics and will have a margin of error. I have received a wide range of guesses from 7 to many billions. It seems people generally have great difficulty in approximation. And some completely lock up and are incapable of even guessing… and surprisingly (or perhaps not so), these are your typical smart guys… math teachers, programmers, engineers, etc.

Maybe this will spawn a whole new domain in IQ tests… Loose math approximation under time constraints. AKA “roughing it in”. Now that I think about it, Google asks these sorts of questions during interviews for a good reason(?).

For the record my guess is 310,000.

Here are a few guesses from my buds…

Sid K: 726,000
Edwin C: 4,000,000,000
Kenneth H: 1,000,000
David B: 480,000
Tina K: 1 Zillion Billion Quintillion
Keith B: 13,000,000
Kevin B: 7
Matt C: 3,257,823
Melissa K: 80,000,000,000
Derek D: 7
Brian E: 10,000,000

Stay tuned for the answer.

*I came up with this bit of trivia at the beach as some idiot tourist was trying to open his stupid glass beer bottle (thanks Corona) by tearing apart the arm rest of a beach rental chair.

An organization devoted to protecting our coastlines and waterways from the devastating environmental effects of oil exploration and support industries.

Mission:

1. To raise awareness about pending Florida legislation to drill for oil within 3 to 10 miles of our coast

2. To organize a statewide, coastal movement to protest this legislation. This protest will bring thousands of Florida citizens to our beaches and will draw metaphorical and physical lines in the sand; human lines in the sand against near shore oil drilling in our waters. This event will be held on Saturday February 13, 2010

3. To convince our Legislators and Governor to drop any and all Legislation that would allow this folly.

Hands Across The Sand On Facebook

Party Checklist…

–Full Belly. Eat something before you come. We will have snacks, not meals. You need to eat something that will sustain extended drinking activities. Please plan accordingly.

–Alcohol. I will have a few cases of beer and a fairly well stocked bar, if you would like to bring more do so.

–Beer pong paddle. There will be a beer pong tournament. The awards presentation will immediately follow.

–Shotgun contest (for ole times sake, we’ll see who retained the skilz and who didn’t). Awards presentation to immediately follow.

–Dancing on the couch. This will depend on the frequency of points earned in the Beer Pong competition.

–Mrs. Pacman high score tourney. Award presentation to immediately follow.

–Musical Jeopardy till everyone gets pissed that I won’t play a song all the way through. Awards presentation to immediately follow.

–Robot demonstration. Limited to the first 10 people due to time constraints.

–Rubber-band plane contest. Awards presentation to immediately follow.

*Special guest appearance: The Stuffing Sandwich Kid!!!