Round Numbers
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POSTERMINARIES
ROUND NUMBERS #
(Come all you rounders, for I want you to hear/The story of a brave engineer1) Whatever it is that makes a number round, it embues that number with a powerful psychological advantage over less round numbers. 2 It was a trivial example that raised my consciousness of this very human foible. Some time ago, the speed limit signs posted on the roads where I work were amended. The limit stated in units of miles per hour (mph) was supplemented with a metrified version. I have no particular prejudice against kilometers but must confess that for road signs I still mentally convert to miles which are hardwired into my subconscious sense of speed.4 I just multiply by 0.6, which is good enough for my psyche and for my speedometer. Then the nit-picking physicist in me took control of my more common senses and was horrified at the approximation used to metrify. In mph it's 30 which computes roughly to 48.28032 kph, a value that
MRS BULLETIN/SEPTEMBER 1995
4450 4400 4350 4300 4250 4200 4150 4100 4050 4000 3950 3900 3850 3800 3750 3700 3650
Plateaus in rise of Dow Jones Industrial Average® resulting from roundness barriers.16
Nov! Dec. ' Jan. '
Feb. ' March ' April ' May
would not come close to fitting on the sign to say nothing of its lack of readability. I'm sure that's an important traffic sign consideration. The posted number was an
even 48 kph. Naturally, I wondered why the mph limits are always in multiples of 5 mph. MOD(5) = 0 is apparently important.5 Perhaps our normal per limb complement of fingers and toes is relevant, but I suspect it's more than that. The metrified version can't also meet this stringent criterion, but is compelled to at least satisfy MOD(l) = 0.6 It quickly becomes apparent when studying this phenomenon that the more general case is MOD(n) = 0, where (n) tries to be an integer with as many trailing zeroes as possible. I saw that road sign at a time when the Dow Jones Industrial Average® was oscillating around 3650. I found myself referencing its performance against 3700 as if that were some sacrosanct benchmark. Not 3690 or 3703, but the nice round 3700. More recently, passing the 4000 mark for the first time was announced, if not hailed, as a milestone. Never mind that
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POSTERMINARIES
Nor will it befinishedin the first one thousand days}2 and I know this exposition [like] ' death hath ten thousand several doors for men to take their exits}3 Therefore, we exit.
Epilogue: Those who take these observations as a challenge to fight t
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