ChineseMarch.frink

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// Program to test the e-mail claim:
// "If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never
// end because of the rate of reproduction.

// China's birth rate for 2007, taken from:  
// http://www.indexmundi.com/china/birth_rate.html
birthrate = 13.45 / 1000 / year

//println[(1/birthrate) -> years]

// China population estimate, June 2007
// http://wikitravel.org/en/China
pop = 1_321_851_888

// Number of people marching abreast
numAbreast = 8

// Marching speed.  This is taken from an estimate of my walking speed. (About
// 3.4 mph, reduced for marching.)
speed = 2 mph

// Distance between rows.
distance = 5 feet

// Distance marched per year
distPerYear = year * speed

// Linear density of people 
density = numAbreast / distance

// Number of people that march by per unit time
personvelocity = density * speed

println[personvelocity + " people walk by in a second."]
println[(personvelocity * year -> "million") + " people walk by in a year."]

timestep = 1 week
time = 0 s

remaining = pop

do
{
   println[format[time, years, 2] + "\t" + format[pop,1,0] + "\t" + format[remaining,1,0]]
   time = time + timestep
   remaining = remaining - (personvelocity * timestep)

   // Change "pop" to "remaining" in the equation below if only people who
   // *haven't* marched by yet are eligible to add new kids to the line.
   born = pop * birthrate * timestep

   pop = pop + born
   remaining = remaining + born
   
} while remaining > 0


Download or view ChineseMarch.frink in plain text format


This is a program written in the programming language Frink.
For more information, view the Frink Documentation or see More Sample Frink Programs.

Alan Eliasen was born 20143 days, 11 hours, 11 minutes ago.