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> Shallit assumed that every amount of change between 0 and 99 cents is equally likely. Fail. He could at least have blagged some transaction data from a retailer that actually does a bunch of small cash transactions. Just getting copies of the receipt roles from his local bodega would be better than this.
Or, they could get rid of every coin smaller than a quarter. Assuming every amount of change less than a dollar is equally likely, the average number of coins needed to make change now becomes 1.5 - and it's not like anybody really uses anything less than a quarter for anything other than coinstar anyways
No. What the U.S. needs is NO coins. (Seriously, does ANYONE use coins anymore? It's either bills or a credit card for me.)
No. What the U.S. needs is NO coins. (Seriously, does ANYONE use coins anymore? It's either bills or a credit card for me.)
No. What the U.S. needs is NO coins. (Seriously, does ANYONE use coins anymore? It's either bills or a credit card for me.)
I just came from a 3 week business trip in Europe, and at least the people I was around use the €1 and €2 coins all the time. I wish we'd get rid of our $1 bills and go to a $1 and $2 coin as well; very convenient. From what I understand, it's cheaper for the gov't in the long run too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The change may be more than a dollar, so tens of cents is not necessarily the leading digit.
the amount of coin change is never more than a dollar.
> Shallit assumed that every amount of change between 0 and 99 cents is equally likely. Fail. He could at least have blagged some transaction data from a retailer that actually does a bunch of small cash transactions. Just getting copies of the receipt roles from his local bodega would be better than this.
> Shallit assumed that every amount of change between 0 and 99 cents is equally likely. Fail. He could at least have blagged some transaction data from a retailer that actually does a bunch of small cash transactions. Just getting copies of the receipt roles from his local bodega would be better than this.
Why does it have to be small transactions? Every transaction, regardless of size, has a chance to end in anything from 0 to 99. The more items on your receipt the more chances to have different variations. Plus tax rate varies from area to area. I don't think that his assumption is that far off. But yes, he probably could have done something to get actual data.
It's not safe to assume that all cent values from 0 to 99 are equally likely because of the fact that cash transactions tend to be small. The number of items being purchased will also tend to be small. So the fact that most prices for individual items tend to end in 99, 95 or some other multiple of five cents should have a huge impact on the distributions in real life, especially for transactions to which sales tax does not apply.
For example in Oregon, a state with no sales tax, the fewest number of items you'd be able to buy at $0.99 or $0.95 to get a $x.32 total is at least 20. (That's a whole lot of "fun size" bags of potato chips.) The total would come out to $19.32, at which point a lot of people would just pay with plastic, anyway. Perhaps most people would.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does it have to be small transactions? Every transaction, regardless of size, has a chance to end in anything from 0 to 99. The more items on your receipt the more chances to have different variations. Plus tax rate varies from area to area. I don't think that his assumption is that far off. But yes, he probably could have done something to get actual data.
It should be small transactions because cash is being used less and less often for medium-to-large transactions. It's not safe to assume that all cent values from 0 to 99 are equally likely because of the fact that cash transactions tend to be small. The number of items being purchased will also tend to be small. So the fact that most prices for individual items tend to end in 99, 95 or some other multiple of five ce…