ph@wucec2.UUCP (Paul Hahn) (11/13/85)
In article <24900116@uiucdcs> mcewan@uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU writes: >> In "The Trouble with Tribbles", >> Spock computes the number of tribbles in the grain storage compartment >> (it's some large number ending with three, I think) and then tells us >> how he computed it... obviously it is not possible to compute the exact >> number, but he pretends to do so. I would think a "real" Vulcan would >> have said something like, "Somewhere between 12,340,000 and 12,500,000". > >Actually, it was possible to compute it exactly, given the assumptions that >Spock made. He assumed that each tribble had exactly x babies every y hours >(I don't remember what x and y were). I think I even checked the arithmetic >once and found that Spock did give the right number. Tribbles have litters of ten every twelve hours, and are capable of reproducing from birth. Spock has the right number for the assumptions you list. However, he also says that he was allowing for the limited amount of space and food in the compartment, but the figure he gives doesn't reflect that, nor should it be possible to do so exactly. It turned out there weren't that many of them anyway, because of the virus in the quadrotriticale. --pH /* * "You ought to sell an instruction manual with these things." * "If I did, Captain, what would happen to the search for * knowledge?" */