Number overflow
I had to go to the pharmacy yesterday to take out some prescription. I
arrived only about half an hour before official closing time, and this
was a large central pharmacy, so there was a long line of people there.
Since they often have more customers than clerks (Yes, yes, they’re
"pharmacists", and studies long and hard for it. Sure. But these days
they don’t make prescription drugs, just take bought boxes off the
shelves and give them to people. The only actual requirement is being
literate) they have a queue system in place.
Near the entrance there’s a dispenser with a paper roll of sequential
numbered tags. And next to the counter there’s a small electric
billboard showing the next number to get services. Pretty common stuff.
But the billboard only has a two-digit display. The numbered paper tags
go to three digits.
I didn’t have any problem with it. I took out number 608, and the board
showed 67. I never doubted that it means my turn is in about 41 people.
Other people seed to have a problem with it, and were not able to grasp
the simple mechanics of number overflow over the hundred’s digit. Again
and again (and again) someone would take a number and stare entirely
puzzled at the billboard, until another person told them that "once it
gets to one hundred it will roll back and start again". Then
they’d sigh a long "Ahhhh" of understanding, mutter about how long they
have to wait, and find a place to wait in.
The fact that so many people constantly were unable to realise that
indeed the lower two-digit numbers will return, I found quite sad.
The fact that so many other people kept telling them "one hundred" I found somewhat sadder. The numbered tickets had the number on them! it was six hundred and something. There are only two ways to look at it:
- The billboard shows only two digits. It will only reach to 99,
and then start again. It can’t show a hundred, so it will never reach
it. - The billboard shows the last two digits of the whole number. It will reach 600, not 100, it went over 100 nearly 500 people ago.
And yet nobody merely said that the numbers will return, they all said 100. ALL.
On a different side note, I was once at the same pharmacy when there
were about 90 people waiting… This is very close to having 100 people
waiting… In which case two people are going to come to the counter
claiming it’s their turn whenever the billboard progresses…
February 5th, 2005 at 12:36 EET | Categories: Miscellaneous |
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