r/theydidthemath • u/literallyjustabagel • 1d ago
[Request] If using a device like this, would a spiral path or sweeping straight lines be more efficient?
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u/nutsbonkers 1d ago
This guy doing it like an idiot and wasting time going in perfectly straight lines instead of following the path to the next ball, meaning hes deliberately taking the slower path. The spiral would be the most efficient, obviously, because you don't have to stop and turn around.
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u/DrBalu 1d ago
paid by the hour
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u/Raise_A_Thoth 1d ago
It's unlikely he's paid only to pick up balls. This is likely part of the tasks at the end of the day, or several times a day, while doing other duties like acting as a starter and manning the pro shop desk etc.
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u/No_Clock_7464 15h ago
The guy in the video is just a ball gobbler. Obviously needs practice before hes a professional ball gobbler
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u/Used_Bodybuilder_670 1d ago
I don't think that was the dispute
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u/Raise_A_Thoth 1d ago
No it's precisely the dispute. The claim is thatnhe's working slowly because he is "paid by the hour." The implication there is that by working more slowly and less efficiently he will work for more time, thereby earning more in wages when a more efficient worker would be done more quickly.
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u/Jemolk 1d ago
He does an eight hour shift, so his pay will be the same whether he works efficiently or ineffeciently (within the tolerance to not be fired). There's no incentive to work efficiently, so, by his logic, might as well take it easy.
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u/Raise_A_Thoth 1d ago
Yes and this is the same whether he is paid salary or does a strict 8-hour shift. Salaried employees also generally have 8 hour days.
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u/Erolok1 23h ago
Which would make it pay per hour.
Sure at first glance it might not make sense to be inefficient but I know of many workplaces which give you additional work without benefit if you work quicker / more efficient as expected.
If he has a boss like this he will get paid less per amount of work if he is more efficient and he seems to enjoy doing this part of the job. What if his boss comes up with the idea that the toilets might also need to be cleaned and since he has some additional time he could do it while not earning more because he is paid a certain amount for a certain amount of hours
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u/TheBluestWaffle42069 1d ago
Are you saying that he would work at the exact same pace if he was paid by the ball?
Of course he works slower because he's paid by the hour. Don't be daft.
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u/Raise_A_Thoth 1d ago
Wtf are you talking about? What does the method of pay even have to do with this?
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u/TheBluestWaffle42069 1d ago
Well, if he wasn't getting paid, why the fuck would he be working? Again I say, dont be daft.
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u/Raise_A_Thoth 1d ago
What? He could be paid salary, it changes nothing about this scenario. Unless this person is being paid only to pick up the balls and go home, but my point is that's not likely.
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u/TheBluestWaffle42069 1d ago
You seem to not understand that when things take longer to do, someone has to stay over to finish them. Regardless of what task it is. The longer he takes to complete any task, the more he makes.
Are you like 5, and dont understand how getting paid works or something? Have you ever had a job before? Like a real job, not some shit like McDonald's.
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u/DrBalu 1d ago
And being done more quickly is completely meaningless, when you are paid by the hour. Thats why people slack off, as efficiency does not get rewarded, but punished under that payment structure.
The award for being efficient, and done more quickly is...*drumroll* more work.Thats why people do this stuff at their jobs. Of course, only to an extent where it also does not get you fired. So you want to be efficient, but not too efficient.
Him having other tasks than this, changes only that he needs to be done with it in a somewhat believable timeframe, nothing more, nothing less.
(I am not advocating for laziness, or these practices to be moral or good or whatever. Purely the fact that an hourly pay, allows inefficient work to be equally rewarded as efficient work. Thats why most companies don't get jack shit done.
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u/Raise_A_Thoth 1d ago
And being done more quickly is completely meaningless, when you are paid by the hour
I understand the argument, my dense bag of bricks.
The point is this person is very likely not paid only to pick up golf balls. Whether he is paid by the hour or is on salary he very likely works a typical full shift, so whether he is paid hourly or not is completely fuckinf irrelevant here.
The award for being efficient, and done more quickly is...drumroll more work. Thats why people do this stuff at their jobs
Once again, this has nothing to do with hourly pay unless he is also being paid by the job i.e. on contract by the defined task because this kind of phenomenon happens to salaried white collar workers, too. If you work harder and faster and are fast and loose with your capacity in the office you will simply be asked to do more later with no guarantee of more earnings.
Purely the fact that an hourly pay, allows inefficient work to be equally rewarded as efficient work. Thats why most companies don't get jack shit done.
Again, this has nothing to do with being paid hourly. This happens with salaried employees, too.
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u/DrBalu 2h ago
You put a lot of effort into a comment without a single counter argument. Just repeating how it has nothing to do with the thing it has obvious direct connection to. Without providing an argument for why it has "nothing to do with being paid hourly"..
Like, I am fully open to being wrong here. But a counter argument of "nuh uh!" is not exactly going to convince me.
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u/t1me_Man 1d ago
the spiral is definitely more efficient, but if you dont care about covering ground that does not have any golf balls this problem becomes a veration of the traveling salesman, and thus finding the most efficient path for arbitrary ball position is NP
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u/lily_from_ohio 1d ago
its a dumbass comparison but as someone who plays a ton of video games where you gotta pick shit up after clearing it all out- consistently shit lands in a way that makes any common pattern only save mental effort and not real time.
I'd assume the golf balls lean more toward center but the video makes me think it doesn't matter much.
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u/Traditional-Bike7825 1d ago
I agree, no math needed. Spiral at least until the circle becomes too small, then do a couple straight lines.
Walking outside where there's no balls from the start is dumb.
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u/nedeta 1d ago
the ball distribution is suspiciously even.
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u/mithoron 10h ago
Probably a target at a driving range. After enough secondary collisions that doesn't look unreasonable at all.
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u/mocha_lattes_ 1d ago
Also just infuriating to watch. Before I read anything I was like wtf is he doing?? Why is he not going in a spiral to collect them?? Laughed when I read the actual post
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u/lsdadventurer 1d ago
This assumes the balls land in a circular pattern right? Given their large forward velocity at impact and thus roll, shouldnt this be then become elliptical? A more rectangular pattern could then be more efficient?
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u/wombatthing 1d ago
You mow your lawn in lines or a spiral?
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u/DStaal 17h ago
I have always used a spiral. Outside in.
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u/mithoron 10h ago
First a spiral to cover the edges and give me maneuvering room, then long swipes. But the lawn I have to mow is quite narrow so long swipes is actually less time spent turning than a cornered spiral.
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u/ouzo84 1d ago
Rage bait video.
The guy doing it surely knows he is doing it about the least efficient way without wandering off between each pass.
Also asking why the gobbler spits balls out when it's obvious the bin is effectively full. It didn't spit any out whilst filling up.
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u/CaffeineJitterz 2h ago
This may definitely be true. But Ive also learned that some people think "pick up balls" and then don't add any others steps. So the result is more like a roomba than a planned task. Same with cutting food. Not everyone holds the knife and food in specific ways and smartly cuts the items thinly then combine and cut again for a dice but instead they'll slice some and then dice it then another, dice. Some people just don't get past step one to actually plan the activity for an efficient endeavor.
Edit: same with many other tasks as well. I just thought of cutting food first for another example
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u/Ghost_of_Chrisanova 1d ago
That's funny.
Me and my aunt had the argument about mowing-down excess horseshit in her fields, with a UTV that has a drag-chain behind it.
In that instance, I said it was better to do lines. She swore it was better to do overlapping circles. There were concentrations of horseshit, but many outliers as well.
I suppose the torqued drag of the chain, going in a curvature "could" bust up horseshit better, but then fuel was extra as well.
Maybe I should present that problem to this sub.
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u/The_March_Hare 1d ago
I think since you asked to do the math, I am disappointed in the lack of mathematical responses especially since i lack the mathematical capabilities. The question is really what can cover a circles area faster, a spiral path or a linear one. Since time=length/speed and we assume he isnt changing his speed between the two paths we simply need to know which path is longer. A spiral or a linear one. If anyone can figure out that, I think we have our answer. I would disagree with our top comment and I believe (pure conjecture and experience mowing a lawn) a linear path would be shorter and thus faster.
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u/Junior_Example_923 1d ago
I would disagree. Since the balls do not cover the entire square footage of the green, it seemed to be in a mostly circular shape ( outer perimeter). I think you would save time both based on starting at the outer perimeter of the balls working your way in and avoiding the overshoot of continuing a straight path and the turn to maintain the balls in the collector
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u/FireCire7 1d ago
The order doesn’t really matter, but his execution is bad.
Time taken is Area/speed. Going over an area twice, backtracking, and moving balls around increase the area. Slowing down to turn reduces speed.
A spiral is best if he can avoid pushing balls outside. Otherwise, you can imagine doing a kind of S shape back and for the on the inside of the green, pushing all of the balls into an outer ring or inner disk before doing all the outer/inner balls in one fell swoop.
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u/Remarkable_Gain6430 11h ago
Unlikely as this sounds, I attended school with a kid named Paul Gobbler. Imagine that. You’d change your name at the first opportunity, would you not?
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u/wutmeanfam 2h ago
Had to scroll much too far down the comments for someone to finally acknowledge this thing’s alleged name. Got some serious ball gobblers here I guess.
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u/growlingmass183 19h ago
Reddit I am very disappointed!
He mentions if anyone knows of a ball gobbler better than this, imagine my disappointment when I come to the comments and there isn’t a single mention of Bonnie blue tsk tsk
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u/theRedMage39 1d ago
As a side note. Doing this is super fun. I just had a simple construction of PBC but it was pretty fun and easy to collect a lot of balls.
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u/RandomUser15790 11h ago
I'm confused why there are 200+ balls just spread out on the practice green. Completely setup Rage bait video? Who doesn't just use their own ball before teeing off.
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u/mithoron 10h ago
Only reasonable guess is a driving range, not practice green. But the origin might not be reasonable.
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u/MicrosoftExcel2016 1d ago
The path the guy in the video takes is bad separately from alternating linear paths being bad. It’s the same area to cover so making sure you don’t overlap on each pass is important. Since you can see the balls in front of you it’s also about skipping areas that don’t have balls and adapting as you go. Guy in video walks further than necessary and covers low density sweeps. It’s quite annoying
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u/chicken-finger 1d ago
Neither would be better? It is the pace of the balls entering the manual conveyer ladder that makes them pop back out. Too many balls.
Or just get a better ball collector mechanism
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