Foo - Exponential Population Growth Problem

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iamlucky13
08-20-08, 10:54 PM
A friend of mine and I used to go mountain biking together. However, a little over a year ago, he bought a road bike and tried out racing. Since then, well...things have changed. In only 18 months his bike collection has grown to 5, with declining intervals. I got suspicious, so I told myself, "If ever there was a time when humanity needed you to apply that semester's worth of numerical methods in an invalid manner, this is it."

So I took a look at his purchasing history, and the result was an exponential regression and extrapolation leading to this graph:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/jameswashere/SKy8nz3Bv_I/AAAAAAAAAfo/2SdVAK6UwGc/s800/roo_bikes.jpg

Ladies and Foo'sters, the threat is clear. By my math his bike stable will become self-aware at 2:14 AM EDT on August 29, 2057. It will exceed the population of the human race by 2079, and things only get worse from there.

What am I to do?


USAZorro
08-20-08, 11:10 PM
Wait for more data. ;)

iamlucky13
08-20-08, 11:11 PM
You mean wait until there are more of them?


USAZorro
08-20-08, 11:15 PM
When there are so many of them that he couldn't possibly keep track of them all, you can start selling them on CL.

UnsafeAlpine
08-20-08, 11:16 PM
Yes. Wait longer. 5 bikes isn't enough data to extrapolate a trend.

iamlucky13
08-21-08, 01:10 AM
Yes. Wait longer. 5 bikes isn't enough data to extrapolate a trend.

I fail to see how you can stand by so casually and shoot down my misapplication of teh maths.