Achtung! Use maths to smash the German tank problem – and your rival

The comments at The Register are rather good, and point out this is a rehash of a known Wikipedia article (I knew that, but it's still worthwhile).

But this comment was a nice cherry on top:

"Not just german and not just math

Reminds me of France declaring Mendeleev (the periodic table guy) persona non-grata 100+ years ago. He guessed correctly that their super-secret advanced smokeless gunpowder is indeed trinitrocellulose by counting the railway wagons with cotton, sulphuric asid and potash going into the plants.

He also quite correctly predicted that it will all end up in tears (due to degradation of higly nitrated and non-inhibited cellulose over time). And indeed it did: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Libert%C3%A9 "

[http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2192208, by Voland's right hand]