HOW TO figure out how many dice there are in the the whole city of Vegas.

antrot · 09-10-2010, 10:43 PM

BRAIN TEASER
This is def off topic,
but how would you figure out how many dice there are in the the whole city of Las Vegas without going there and actually counting????? lol.
And you cant find it online
Just curious as to how people would figure this out because I have no clue.

I335 · 09-11-2010, 07:55 AM

You're smokin' too much pot...

w2 · 09-11-2010, 08:13 AM

When you think dice and Las Vegas, you probably think casinos, but my bet is that casinos use only a minority of the dice in the city. A quick look at google says there are about 1700 legal casinos in Las Vegas and about 5,000,000 residents. If we guess that there are an average of 10 craps tables per casino (more at large ones like the Luxor or the Venetian and fewer at the small ones) and each craps table has 10 pairs of dice on hand, that's only 340,000 dice. On the other hand, if there are about 5 people per household, that's 1,000,000 households. If there is an average of 1 board game that uses dice per household and the average board game uses 2 dice, that's another 2,000,000 dice. Role paying gamers (Dungeons and Dragons, etc.) are also big users of dice: most players will have one or more 4, 6,8, 10, 12, and 20-sided dice. If the average gamer owns 12 dice and 1 in 100 people are gamers, that would be another 600,000 dice. So we're looking at about 3,000,000 dice, factoring in casinos, board games, and the stashes of role playing gamers. If I look at a typical Toys'R'Us store, it seems they have maybe a few hundred games on the shelf at any one time, which maybe represents 500 dice. If that kind of store serves a population of 100,000, that would mean Las Vegas has about 50 such stores, or another 25,000 or so dice. This suggest to me that retail stocks probably don't affect the bottom line all that much; I'd say that about 3,000,000 is a pretty good guess, with a large margin of error.

Some companies (Microsoft comes to mind) have a reputation for asking these kinds of questions on interviews. I think the point is to try to see how well a job applicant can assess a problem, identify the relevant factors, and come up with a broad estimate of the size, duration, or scope of a project. A lot of people who have been through those interviews seem to think they're pretty annoying.

09-10-2010, 10:43 PM	#1
antrot Second Lieutenant 17 Rep 231 Posts Drives: 11 335i sedan Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Toronto/Vaughan iTrader: (0)	HOW TO figure out how many dice there are in the the whole city of Vegas. BRAIN TEASER This is def off topic, but how would you figure out how many dice there are in the the whole city of Las Vegas without going there and actually counting????? lol. And you cant find it online Just curious as to how people would figure this out because I have no clue.
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09-11-2010, 07:55 AM	#2
I335 Brigadier General 123 Rep 4,249 Posts Drives: '08 335i Coupe Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: New England iTrader: (11)	You're smokin' too much pot...
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09-11-2010, 08:13 AM	#3
w2 Private First Class 1 Rep 143 Posts Drives: 335i coupe Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ottawa, Canada iTrader: (0)	When you think dice and Las Vegas, you probably think casinos, but my bet is that casinos use only a minority of the dice in the city. A quick look at google says there are about 1700 legal casinos in Las Vegas and about 5,000,000 residents. If we guess that there are an average of 10 craps tables per casino (more at large ones like the Luxor or the Venetian and fewer at the small ones) and each craps table has 10 pairs of dice on hand, that's only 340,000 dice. On the other hand, if there are about 5 people per household, that's 1,000,000 households. If there is an average of 1 board game that uses dice per household and the average board game uses 2 dice, that's another 2,000,000 dice. Role paying gamers (Dungeons and Dragons, etc.) are also big users of dice: most players will have one or more 4, 6,8, 10, 12, and 20-sided dice. If the average gamer owns 12 dice and 1 in 100 people are gamers, that would be another 600,000 dice. So we're looking at about 3,000,000 dice, factoring in casinos, board games, and the stashes of role playing gamers. If I look at a typical Toys'R'Us store, it seems they have maybe a few hundred games on the shelf at any one time, which maybe represents 500 dice. If that kind of store serves a population of 100,000, that would mean Las Vegas has about 50 such stores, or another 25,000 or so dice. This suggest to me that retail stocks probably don't affect the bottom line all that much; I'd say that about 3,000,000 is a pretty good guess, with a large margin of error. Some companies (Microsoft comes to mind) have a reputation for asking these kinds of questions on interviews. I think the point is to try to see how well a job applicant can assess a problem, identify the relevant factors, and come up with a broad estimate of the size, duration, or scope of a project. A lot of people who have been through those interviews seem to think they're pretty annoying.
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