From the course: Everyday Statistics, with Eddie Davila

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Waiting in lines

Waiting in lines

From the course: Everyday Statistics, with Eddie Davila

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Waiting in lines

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- [Instructor] Lines. They're everywhere. The lines we see at coffee shops and grocery stores and even those we can't see like when we wait on hold at a call center. How long will I wait? What are the chances there won't be line? The key to answering these questions is statistics and probability. Suppose a place of business has an average of six customers arrive per hour. So a customer arrives on average every 10 minutes. This business has a single employee that can help up to 10 customers per hour. On average, it takes this employee six minutes to help each customer. Those two numbers are almost all that is needed to work through the most basic waiting line problems. Now that we know that customers arrive six per hour and we can help 10 per hour, we know the percentage of time our server is busy helping customers. This worker is busy 60% of the time. So one worker is busy 60% of the time. If we hire a second worker, each of these two workers will be busy 30% of the time. Any guesses…

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