Fermi问题

1

How many McDonald in US?
Solution
400,000,000 people in US. Only people between 10-40 will eat McDonald. Only people are not that rich, don’t care about health will eat it. Considering all these only 50,000,000 will eat it. The high peak of eating is in the noon, we assume the working hour is 2 hours. The serving time for each meal is 20 seconds, with 3 lines. So one week an outlets can serve 73603 = 7560.One people will eat 3 times a week. So the overall outlets are $50,000,000\ast 3/7560\approx 20,000$

2

How many gas station in US?
Solution
400,000,000 people in US. 1/2 people has a car. 2 times per week. A gas station has 4 refueling guns. 5 minutes for a car. working 10 hours a day. So a day it can serve 2400 cars. So the overall gas station number is $200,000,000\ast 2/(5\ast 2400)\approx 166,000$

3

How many elevators in the US
Solution
400,000,000 people in US. 1/4 people are white-collar workers. In the morning peak, about an hour, 6 minutes for 20 persons. An elevator can transport 200 persons in a morning. So we have 500,000 elevators.