THE NUMBERS DON’T STICK FOR VEHICLE ADVERTISING
According to the United States Census Bureau, there is an approximate world population of 6,888,639,347 people. I will call it 7 billion to make future calculations easier to figure out. McDonald’s spends about $1 billion/year on direct advertising or about 14 cents per year/per person on the planet. The hamburger chain advertises to the entire globe because their stores are so ubiquitous. So what company would be willing to spend $12/per year/per person to send out a message?
State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago), candidate for City Clerk, has proposed selling advertising on the flip-side of the city’s vehicle stickers for $15 million. She arrived at that figure by calculating that some company would be willing to fork over $1/month for the right to have their ad on the 1.25 million windshields in the city of Chicago.
“That’s really cheap if you think about being in someone’s vehicle for 365 days. It’s a great deal and great opportunity for an advertiser,” she said. There are a number of assumptions wrong with that statement. First, as previously shown, it is not a cheap cost per person for advertising. Second, she is assuming that everybody gets into their car every day. While the sticker might be affixed to my car for 365 days a year, I only use my car about twice a week and would see the message only 100 times, not 365, which basically makes the per view advertising cost three times higher!
I think Susana is fabulous and will vote for her in her quest for the Clerk’s job, but when are people going to learn to come and ask me for advice before they start spouting numbers and embarrass themselves?
THE SKY IS FALLING!
In October, Chicago City Inspector General Joseph Ferguson warned that Chicago's $6 billion budget would be $1 billion out of whack for years to come. I would guess more.
Mayor Daley has privatized a number of city assets during the last few years. The Chicago Skyway was leased for 99 years and the parking meters for 75. The payments for the leases brought in almost $3 billion. The Chicago Tribune reported, “Instead of using the nest egg to invest and grow, 80 percent of it is now gone, even though the leases require the city to forgo meter revenue until 2084 and Skyway revenue into the early 22nd century, presuming anybody is still driving by then.” A five-year old knows if they spend the capital there will be no money left in their piggy bank!
Laurence Msall, President of the Chicago Civic Federation said, "We entered the Great Recession with … no economic plan and grossly underfunded pensions. It will be very difficult for the next mayor to put together a balanced budget without dramatically changing the structure and method by which the city delivers services."
Smart guy that Msall. Last week he was elected Treasurer of the Chicago Area Public Affairs Group (CAPAG) where I serve on the Board. I doubt if he will have any math questions, but if he does, at least he knows where to find me and ask.
I always come to you with my math questions because I hate math. My guru
ReplyDeleteCan you prove (or disprove) the Riemann hypothesis? Please beware that if you disprove it, it will force the rethinking of modern mathematics!
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jason's question:
ReplyDeleteIn mathematics, the Riemann hypothesis, proposed by Bernhard Riemann (1859), is a conjecture about the distribution of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function which states that all non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function have real part 1/2. The name is also used for some closely related analogues, such as the Riemann hypothesis for curves over finite fields.
The Riemann hypothesis implies results about the distribution of prime numbers that are in some ways as good as possible. Along with suitable generalizations, it is considered by some mathematicians to be the most important unresolved problem in pure mathematics (Bombieri 2000).
The Riemann zeta function ζ(s) is defined for all complex numbers s ≠ 1. It has zeros at the negative even integers (i.e. at s = −2, −4, −6, ...). These are called the trivial zeros. The Riemann hypothesis is concerned with the non-trivial zeros, and states that:
The real part of any non-trivial zero of the Riemann zeta function is 1/2.
Thus the non-trivial zeros should lie on the critical line, 1/2 + it, where t is a real number and i is the imaginary unit.
The Riemann hypothesis is part of Problem 8, along with the Goldbach conjecture, in Hilbert's list of 23 unsolved problems, and is also one of the Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Prize Problems. Since it was formulated, it has withstood concentrated efforts from many outstanding mathematicians. In 1973, Pierre Deligne proved that the Riemann hypothesis held true over finite fields. The full version of the hypothesis remains unsolved, although modern computer calculations have shown that the first 10 trillion zeros lie on the critical line.
I agree with Rieman, so I do not look to disprove the theory.
Thank god, we don't have to rethink all of modern mathematics. Thank god even more, you approve of something as trivial as 0.
ReplyDeleteBob writes:
ReplyDelete"What else Ms. Mendoza doesn’t grasp — and this from a non-driver — is that the driver is in the car alone most of the time, enters the car from the driver’s side and looks over to the right only to see traffic and the outside mirror on the passenger side, never glancing at the back of the vehicle sticker, which is supposed to be affixed to the far lower corner of the windshield on the passenger side."
Jason writes:
ReplyDelete"Gary Meier is talking about it now on WGN radio. He is in favor and called it a great idea! He obviously hasn't read your blog."