Use math to find the stolen bike

Reverend Conehead

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I'm surprised the cops didn't listen to this computer scientist. His idea was logical and would have saved them time. So the guy's bike got ripped off, and there was an 8-hour window where he knew it must have happened, and he had security footage of the whole time. So the cops could have, of course, just started at the beginning of the footage and just plow through it. Maybe they could speed it up too. But the computer scientist suggested that they use this algorithm:

1. Divide the footage in half -- check it out at the halfway point and see if the bike is still there.
2. If the bike is still there, you know the theft happened in the latter 4 hours of footage. If it's gone, you know it happened in the first half.
3. You then take whichever half has the theft, and divide that in half, and check if the bike is there at the middle point. If it is, the theft is in its latter half; if not, it's in the first half.
4. And you just keep repeating this process until you're down to a small window of time where you know the bike was stolen. Then you have a short amount of footage to watch instead of the 8 hours.

It makes total sense, and really isn't all that complicated. You don't have to be some kind of expert mathematician to do it, and it will safe A LOT of time.

These cops not only should have done his suggestion, they should have hired him. He probably could have helped them to solve crimes.

https://www.iflscience.com/computer...lice-to-find-his-stolen-bike-using-math-67260
 
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