Fermi Question

Estimate (to within 1 order of magnitude) how many golf-balls are sold per year world- wide?

what sort of things should I be brainstorming here?
Also, for fermi questions, are there any particular figures i should memorise?

Reply 1

old_engineer

11

a) Human population of the world
b) Fraction of the world's population with the wherewithal and/or motivation to play golf
c) Fine tune of (b) for possible differing male/female participation
d) Number of rounds per player per year
e) number of balls lost per player-round
f) assume that lost balls are replaced with new (or introduce a factor for second-hand sales).

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 2

old_engineer

11

g) number of balls per player-round replaced due to wear and tear;
h) something to account for new players stocking up.

Reply 3

Physics Enemy

19

Original post by marinacalder

...

Very open ended Q to be fair, they'd just be looking at your own reasoning, not any set method(s) for getting an esp close answer.

Some good assumptions above. I'd also factor in age/ethnicity/country and include an argument about no. balls for pro/amateur comps & practise sessions, but that's me. :smile:

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 4

Kallisto

Entertainment Forum Helper

22

Original post by marinacalder

Estimate (to within 1 order of magnitude) how many golf-balls are sold per year world- wide?

what sort of things should I be brainstorming here?
Also, for fermi questions, are there any particular figures i should memorise?

roughly calculated, there are just four steps:

1.) how many golf players exist world-wide, both pros and amateurs?
2.) how many golf balls are sold per day?
3.) multiply the numbers with the number of sold golf balls per day
4.) multiply this result by 365 days a year.

Reply 5

Physics Enemy

19

Original post by Kallisto

roughly calculated, there are just four steps:

1.) how many golf players exist world-wide, both pros and amateurs?
2.) how many golf balls are sold per day?
3.) multiply the numbers with the number of sold golf balls per day
4.) multiply this result by 365 days a year.

marinacalder

...

Not bad

I guess it boils down to a judgement about balls used for pro/amateur comps & practise sessions vs daily recreational use.

I'd say golf has a higher weighting for the former than in football, where it's heavily skewed to recreational use by kids/adults (mostly male) throughout most parts of the world (not just predominantly the anglosphere & europe, as with golf).

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 6

Kallisto

Entertainment Forum Helper

22

Original post by Physics Enemy

Not bad

I guess it boils down to a judgement about balls used for pro/amateur comps & practise sessions vs daily recreational use.

I'd say golf has a higher weighting for the former than in football, where it's heavily skewed to recreational use by kids/adults (mostly male) throughout most parts of the world (not just predominantly the anglosphere).

Now you are talking about recreational use, what about the parks and leisure centers which offer to play golf? how many golf balls have to buy by those? how man of them exist world-wide?

Reply 7

Physics Enemy

19

Original post by Kallisto

Now you are talking about recreational use, what about the parks and leisure centers which offer to play golf? how many golf balls have to buy by those? how man of them exist world-wide?

marinacalder

...

For golf I'd focus on anglosphere/europe and the pro/amateur use (comp & practise). I'd then say recreational use is 1/X of pro/amateur use and make a very rough argument for X based on population sizes, older white male %s, likelihood/frequency they'd play, parks etc.

For football I'd just focus on the near-worldwide recreational use amongst the youth, as I feel that would be very dominant. Most footballs should last the full year (lost less easily than golf balls), which simplifies things there.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 8

Notnek

21

There are no correct answers to Fermi problems and if this was an interview question, the interviewer be looking to see that the student has thought hard about the problem and offered a well reasoned solution.

Giving the OP a list of things to think about isn't very helpful IMO. This thread would have gone much better if they showed their own attempt first.

@marinacalder after this one I suggest trying another Fermi problem yourself and post you're thoughts and working here.

Fermi Question

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you