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I came across a fact on the google module (awesome module by the way).
It said that every afternoon americans come home with 400 million dollars in change. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was somewhere near that amount.
How was this number calculated? Does the NSA now have RFID chips embedded in every coin? What about those manufactured before RFID chips were invented?
The number seems a bit high, because there are only 300 million americans. Now take out the children, and those who don't leave their home/hospital/nusing home that means every american would have to come home with $2 in change. Of course, then you have more and more americans like me who don't use cash at all.
Ah, but you also have to take into consideration the large number of Americans who work as waiters/waitresses. Many times, they receive their tips in change, so that pulls the average up. A friend who worked as a waitress used to roll her tips every Thursday, and she regularly had $50 to $100 to turn in to the bank on Fridays.
True. And I used to work at a job where I could exchange my bills with coins, and I'm an avid coin collector. So I would buy up all the change I could while at work and sift through it later. I must have been taking home at least $15 in change daily.
The NSA is too public now to do that kind of tracing, by the way. It's a more secret group doing it.
This is true. I am currently working as a waiter to help get me through college and I brought home around $25 just last night in change between tips and tipshare (on a non-busy night).
It is slightly annoying since I am just the opposite of you Udoboy (in that I detest having lots of change), but I usually end up using it to buy into poker games anyway.
you say that children don't bring home change in their pockets?
when i was a little kiid - i must have been eight or nine, i ran a lemonade stall - 50 pence for a paper cup of lemonade. we (my friend and i) would always get the 20p, 10p and 5p pieces, and on a good day we would come home with about twenty quid between us.
however, that said, we weren't american and never have been, so we don't really count. despite this, i felt it was an appropriate example to show you not to rule out children because sometimes they come home with the most change out of anyone.
I found this statistic also, the number cited is $402,750,000. If you read further, you find how this number was arrived at. And why it is a bit misleading.
The number of cash transactions occuring each day on average are computed by juxtaposing the sales taxes paid by retail businesses and credit card transaction totals. It is assumed that all sales not paid in credit are paid in cash. This poses a problem as checks are often used also. The difference here is neglegable.
The big problem here is the homeless. In urban areas, the homeless claim much of the change out of the pockets of Americans. Since they never really go home, they can't be said to "come home with change," so they shouldn't count.
To adjust for this, take the total value of change divided by the population= 1.3425, and multiply this by the American population living in urbanized areas, .69= 0.926325. Raised to the power of e, and divided by pi we arrive at a multiplier for the average American. Here though is another issue. Most Americans do not give quarters to the homeless; they are simply too much wealth to give away. We must multiply this value by the number of quarters in a dollar. We thus arrive at 1.0341, then multiplied again by the population, we get the new number: $310,230,830.33.
This number is expected as the homeless deal mostly in change and would siphon most of it from the populace. The difference here, though, is a matter of opinion, as the definition of "home" may include the sleeping place of the homeless. If that is the case, the original number is accurate.
That's really interesting frozenpea, especially given that we were looking at two completely different studies. The study that backs up the fact that ran on the site was based around a survey of 1,213 randomly selected Americans (the youngest was 8 the oldest, 82) and for one week, had them record how much change they walked in their front door with each day for a week.
It's always fascinating to see people come up with the same numbers (ballpark) using an alternate methodology.
That is interesting. I thought it was odd that he had mentioned the google module, while my data was coming from Scientific American....
Posted By: legatissimoThat's really interesting frozenpea,
Hehe -- I would have said "frightening." Although I really like how pi was used as a piece of the formula.
(looking through old threads.)
How was this number calculated? Does the NSA now have RFID chips embedded in every coin? What about those manufactured before RFID chips were invented?
Well the NSA does not embed the RFID chips in the coins, it is the Secret Service since they are the agency responsible for policing the United States' monetary reserve. The chips are used to track various things, but mainly they are used to monitor a currency trail when investigating crimes; for instance, when counterfeit money is being exchanged for the real thing. Also, other agencies benefit as well, such as the FBI, NSA, and CIA, because the RFID chips can help in solving other crimes where a currency trail is beneficial.
You might want to think twice before you stick another penny on the rail road tracks to watch it get flattened.
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