h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Little's result is a ridiculously simple idea about how customers move through systems of any kind. It's also surprisingly useful.
This entry's pretty short. I could add a proof of the thing, but I don't think that would be terribly worthwhile...

Er, it is pretty simple.

Maybe you could add an actual example of when this formula produces intriguing results. Or perhaps you could add an observation that LIttle's result only predicts an average, and that the amount of poeple _actually_ in a bank queue is either none, or thirty.

A more accurate equation would be:
N=LR*FA*PR/ML/NT
where:
N=Number of people in the queue
LR=Little's Result
FR=Whtere or not it's Friday afternoon
PR=The probability that you're in a rush
ML=Minutes left of your lunch break
NT=Number of tellers not out to lunch

Umm - I don't think there are any cases were Little's Result is intriguing - it'd be like finding a case where addition was interesting... But I've added an example which is at least vaguelly amusing.

The result does hold up under Sod's Law, though. When you're in a desperate rush to get something done, all the clerks will go on strike, throughput will drop to zero, and the queue size will increase to "oh my goodness that's big"...

This is a good article, short and to the point on a short and to the point theorum .. good job

I lik ethe little example, no pun intended.

~Beeblefish

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