Vote for your favorite image in Trackside with Trains Vol. 325: "Elements!" Who captured it best this week? The poll is open through April 8.
http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/trackside/2018/04/vol-325-elements
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Zardoz: Is that you?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
I was torn between Jim and Kathy Ribar's photos. Both are excellent. The dramaitic sky and the lighting are both wonderful! I found it hard to decide but the white Soo Line paint got my vote.
Is there a way to find out how many votes were cast?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Semper Vaporo Is there a way to find out how many votes were cast?
Murphy Siding Zardoz: Is that you?
Murphy Siding Semper Vaporo Is there a way to find out how many votes were cast? I feel kinda weird admitting it, but I can usually figure it out mathematically. It's kind of a math brain teaser. Right now, there are 83 votes. The guy with 1.2% of the votes has 1 vote.
I feel kinda weird admitting it, but I can usually figure it out mathematically. It's kind of a math brain teaser. Right now, there are 83 votes. The guy with 1.2% of the votes has 1 vote.
I am sure someone voted right after you calculated because there are none at 1.2%, but none the less... could you walk me through it?
I have tried stuff like assumming the lowest percentage is a vote of 1, but then when I try to apply that value to the others, they don't come out even... I realize that there will be roundoff errors in this, but I find vote counts that are not even close to being an even multiple of the lowest percentage. e.g.: if the lowest vote pecentage is 1.03% then what number of votes can create vote percentages of 4.62% and 7.18% and 31.79% None of those are even close to an even multiple of 1.03% so 1.03% must be from more than 1 vote, but 2 votes to get 1.03% means that each vote would be worth 1/2 of that (0.515%) and none of the above percentages are even multiples of that either.
I run into that no matter what I select the lowest percentage represents until I get up into the 10's of thousands of total votes for all the entries in any of the recent contests. I don't mean to denigrate the web site, but I seriously doubt there are THAT many people voting!
Murphy Siding I feel kinda weird admitting it, but I can usually figure it out mathematically. It's kind of a math brain teaser. Right now, there are 83 votes. The guy with 1.2% of the votes has 1 vote.
If there were 2 votes in 166 would that not yield the same result?
Always the command line commando, I set up a spread sheet to calculate the number of votes each percentage represents. With the lowest percentage at .24%, that would mean 417 votes would have been cast as of the time of this post. Assuming the .24% at this point represents one vote.
This method is largely experimental - one cell is set up at the number of votes cast and the rest of the cells compute based on that.
As noted there are rounding errors, although most of the vote counts come out within a tenth of a vote of a whole number.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Dakguy201 Murphy Siding I feel kinda weird admitting it, but I can usually figure it out mathematically. It's kind of a math brain teaser. Right now, there are 83 votes. The guy with 1.2% of the votes has 1 vote. If there were 2 votes in 166 would that not yield the same result?
I suppose. There goes that theory. I suppose you could say that traffic lights that are synchronized for 35 mph are also synchronized for 70 mph as well. I just guessed that the lowest vote tally was 1 vote because the voting had just started. In the past, I've played the number game like Semper Vaporo talks about above. I vaguely recall it had something to do with odd and even vote count assumptions making it possible to isolate some numbers and then figure out a pattern. A couple times I could figure it out, other times I couldn't. It involves some logic, some guess and some algebra stuff that I have long forgotten. I always try to tell myself that working a little puzzle like that will keep my brain young. The jury's still out on that, and probably not coming back. Maybe we can have a contest a week from now and see if anybody can figure out the mathmatical answer. In the meantime, I need to revisit my winning lotto number formula. That hasn't been working so well for me either.
The neat thing is that there are 12 entries and they're not all 3/4 wedge shots of a locomotive.
Murphy Siding The neat thing is that there are 12 entries and they're not all 3/4 wedge shots of a locomotive.
Always a plus. I love it when someone looks for a new angle (if you will) from which to approach the topic.
Just updated my spreadsheet to 418 entries. It appears Alex Mayes got the additional vote.
I set up an additional row of cells with the integer values of the number of votes as determined by the percentage, then divided them by the vote total, and the percentages come out exactly the same. Apparently I did something right.
Murphy Siding Vol. 325: Elements Jay Bridges 3.55 % Paul Clawson 2.84 % Sam Foster 1.18 % Robert Jordan 8.75 % Holland Majors 0.24 % Alex Mayes 10.40 % Jim Ribar 32.39 % Kathy Ribar 22.22 % Dale Rockwell 5.67 % Chip Sherman 1.42 % Spencer T. Whitman 8.04 % Kenneth G. Williamson 3.31 % I calculate the above as working out to 418 votes cast so far. Highest right now is Jim R. 418 x 32.39% =135 votesLowest right now is Holland M. 418 x .24% = 1 vote
Yeah, but, turn it around and 135 votes out of 418 is 32.40% (not 32.39%).
Edit: 423 total votes works better!
Here's the spreadsheet with 423 votes:
423 0.0341 14.4243 14 0.0341 0.0273 11.5479 12 0.0273 0.0136 5.7528 6 0.0136 0.0864 36.5472 37 0.0864 0.0023 0.9729 1 0.0023 0.1091 46.1493 46 0.1091 0.325 137.475 137 0.3250 0.2205 93.2715 93 0.2205 0.0591 24.9993 25 0.0591 0.0136 5.7528 6 0.0136 0.0773 32.6979 33 0.0773 0.0318 13.4514 13 0.0318 423 1.0000
First and last lines are the vote count, with the last line the total for the column.
First column is the percentage from the forum thread. Second is the votes based on that percentage. Third we have the rounded vote count, and fourth is the percentage calculated by dividing the integer vote count by the vote total. I limited the decimal places to four to keep the caparison similar, and so far they all have been.
If I go through and change the percentages as it is updated, it all comes out in the wash.
Love Math majors
Murphy Siding I suppose you could say that traffic lights that are synchronized for 35 mph are also synchronized for 70 mph as well.
I suppose you could say that traffic lights that are synchronized for 35 mph are also synchronized for 70 mph as well.
zardoz Murphy Siding I suppose you could say that traffic lights that are synchronized for 35 mph are also synchronized for 70 mph as well. I always wanted to try and find out.
I always wanted to try and find out.
Murphy might be right but the other traffic is synnchronized for 35 MPH and might get in the way if you try to find out.
CSSHEGEWISCHMurphy might be right but the other traffic is synnchronized for 35 MPH and might get in the way if you try to find out.
Sounds like an early (very early) Sunday morning project...
CSSHEGEWISCH zardoz Murphy Siding I suppose you could say that traffic lights that are synchronized for 35 mph are also synchronized for 70 mph as well. I always wanted to try and find out. Murphy might be right but the other traffic is synnchronized for 35 MPH and might get in the way if you try to find out.
tree68 CSSHEGEWISCH Murphy might be right but the other traffic is synnchronized for 35 MPH and might get in the way if you try to find out. Sounds like an early (very early) Sunday morning project...
CSSHEGEWISCH Murphy might be right but the other traffic is synnchronized for 35 MPH and might get in the way if you try to find out.
tree68 Here's the spreadsheet with 423 votes: 423 0.0341 14.4243 14 0.0341 0.0273 11.5479 12 0.0273 0.0136 5.7528 6 0.0136 0.0864 36.5472 37 0.0864 0.0023 0.9729 1 0.0023 0.1091 46.1493 46 0.1091 0.325 137.475 137 0.3250 0.2205 93.2715 93 0.2205 0.0591 24.9993 25 0.0591 0.0136 5.7528 6 0.0136 0.0773 32.6979 33 0.0773 0.0318 13.4514 13 0.0318 423 1.0000 First and last lines are the vote count, with the last line the total for the column. First column is the percentage from the forum thread. Second is the votes based on that percentage. Third we have the rounded vote count, and fourth is the percentage calculated by dividing the integer vote count by the vote total. I limited the decimal places to four to keep the caparison similar, and so far they all have been. If I go through and change the percentages as it is updated, it all comes out in the wash.
Murphy Siding tree68 Here's the spreadsheet with 423 votes: 423 0.0341 14.4243 14 0.0341 0.0273 11.5479 12 0.0273 0.0136 5.7528 6 0.0136 0.0864 36.5472 37 0.0864 0.0023 0.9729 1 0.0023 0.1091 46.1493 46 0.1091 0.325 137.475 137 0.3250 0.2205 93.2715 93 0.2205 0.0591 24.9993 25 0.0591 0.0136 5.7528 6 0.0136 0.0773 32.6979 33 0.0773 0.0318 13.4514 13 0.0318 423 1.0000 First and last lines are the vote count, with the last line the total for the column. First column is the percentage from the forum thread. Second is the votes based on that percentage. Third we have the rounded vote count, and fourth is the percentage calculated by dividing the integer vote count by the vote total. I limited the decimal places to four to keep the caparison similar, and so far they all have been. If I go through and change the percentages as it is updated, it all comes out in the wash. To paraphrase Dakguy201 from his post up above, if there were 2 votes in 846 would that not yield the same result?
To paraphrase Dakguy201 from his post up above, if there were 2 votes in 846 would that not yield the same result?
Yes, it does, but the assumption is that the number of votes would be the smaller of the possible ones that can create the percentages. Any whole multiple of the total number of votes would produce the same results.
Murphy SidingTo paraphrase Dakguy201 from his post up above, if there were 2 votes in 846 would that not yield the same result?
I did exactly that, simply changing the number at the top. And got exactly that result.
Without knowing how many votes these contests usually get, one can only make assumptions. However, as the number of votes rises, the odds of there being an "odd" number of votes increases.
I didn't track which entrant's totals increased last time I updated the spreadsheet, but it wouldn't be hard to track the voting.
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