One Of These Students Has Extra Potential
We’re heading to an early Halloween party. My dorm is bringing a collection of drinks. Cans of beer and cans of cider are slightly different sizes. One student has a plastic bin.
Student #1: “Think these will fit? I don’t wanna try to carry these loose.”
Student #2: “I dunno; that bin’s not too big. Actually… how big is the bin? We can just do the math.”
We measure the bin.
Student #3: “Okay, so… total volume, minus beer volume, times beer count, minus cider volume, times…”
Somehow, she has a mini whiteboard — engineers are like this — and does some math.
Student #3: “That’s pretty close. Okay, if we treat each can as a rectangular cuboid—”
Student #2: “But the z-axis — the cider cans are longer—”
Student #1: “We can treat each layer as a separate packing problem—”
Student #2: “The sum of the height of both types of cans, plus one can on its side—”
Student #4: “Don’t worry; they’ll all fit.”
Student #1: “Wait, how do you know?”
Student #4: “I put the cans in the bin while you were arguing.”
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