I like the more complex ones. If there are fewer interim estimates required, then you may be further off with the estimate as you will have less benefits from overestimations and underestimations evening out. Fun stuff. I estimated way fewer with the blades of grass. 36.000.000. You will do best if you have several people doing a Fermi estimate and then averaging.
I have indeed. Earlier in my career. And I completely messed it up. I didn’t know what Fermi questions were back then, so I was more concerned that the rough numbers I was using were wrong, and lost all confidence! 🤣 That’s why I like Fermi’s principle about under/overestimates potentially cancelling each other out, and the idea of having come ‘landmark numbers’ that you can always refer to. PLUS I now know that, in interviews, the people interviewing you are more interested in the logic you use to get to the answer than the actual answer itself 😉
@@undatable5838 When I tried this problem, before listening to the solution, I drew the 1cm x 1cm square and estimated that 8 blades of grass would fit in it by drawing it :)
UMIST physics question, for clean drinking water at the equator, de-salinate or drag icebergs. My answer was about the same. Kg m / s is all you need. Combine this monte carlo with fast aI. Scale is everything, Giga Farad to atto second
I came to know about this Fermi thing From an Anime 🌚 - Amagi Brilliant park , it's something about a guy trying to re-establish a broken amusement park
1st exp. i guestimate 10 blades of grass for each 1cm3 i guestimate field for 30 meters by 70m - numbers of blades of gras approx 200 milion ( correction after checking: field is 100x70m so i underestimate somwere 3,5 times :P but still close :))
Hi Tharun, the best thing you can do is to practice as much as you can, until it becomes a habit. If you Google ‘Fermi problems’, there are some fantastic educational resources that schools have developed for their students… and regardless of your age, they’re worth giving a go.
Hi Arjun, yes it’s used quite a lot. It was named after one of the world’s most famous physicists, so that’s a clue. But also it’s a shortcut used by a lot businesses, engineers and others to either give an estimate, or help to inform what additional data/exploration is needed. It’s not recommended if you have a life or death situation… but if you’re time limited or lacking data, then it’s a fantastic technique! Hope that helps! ☺️
All the time. Frequently called a "guesstimate" :) And even if it's not used to actually derive the actual answer, this approach can be used to confirm that the calculated answer makes sense. From buying groceries to producing a business plan, to calculating the weight of the materials for a bridge, to figuring out how many developers you need in a startup.
