Ask HN: Have you noticed this peculiarity on vending machines? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Have you noticed this peculiarity on vending machines?

14 pointsglaberficken8 comments

[advance apologies for the trivial nature of this post. Hope it finds a fit on your Saturday =]

A vending machine at my workplace has a 10 item row with water bottles (all same brand and label) numbered in the range [51-60].

As is customary in current vending machines you select the item by entering a double digit number on a keypad.

When I'm buying water I always select item number 55 (because I find it more convenient to just press the same button twice without looking than typing any of the other options that have 2 different digits).

Surprise, surprise, item 55 is always the first one to sell out on that row. Which means most people also do the same convenience trick as me.

Have you noticed any similar "hidden" patterns like this one?

In Brazil vote is not a right but "mandatory" -> Quotes mean..double speaking.

If you don't vote you have to pay fees, cannot work on the public sector or get a passport.

So it is very common for the candidates with number 12345 being elected[1].

Or the ones with 123,111 [2] [3]

Even Business companies try to make "easier" for you to remember their number.

[1] - https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elei%C3%A7%C3%B5es_distritais_...

[2] - https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elei%C3%A7%C3%B5es_distritais_...

[3] - https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elei%C3%A7%C3%B5es_estaduais_n...

I'm surprised the candidates are not randomised on the ballots?

There are many parties; each party has a double-digit number; candidate numbers start with their party number. You can even just enter the 2 digits to vote on the party's candidate list instead of on individual candidates.

this pattern is mostly coincidental i think but you might be interested in benford's law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law

which is an observation about scale invariant quantities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law#Scale_invarian...

Reminds me a little bit of the chapter "Candy Machine Interfaces" from Steve Maguire's book "Writing Solid Code"

My University has the water bottles at the same number range and the first one to be sold out is always 55.

I usually pick 51, no idea why.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge_theory

Reminds me of: https://www.xkcd.com/1103/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com