Mathematicians found out why waiting for the elevator takes forever
SMRTR summary
Physicists George Gamow and Marvin Stern noticed in the 1950s that elevators almost always travel the wrong direction when called. Math explains why: floors near the top or bottom have very short windows when an elevator travels the "right" way, making the opposite direction far more likely to arrive first.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Scientific American.
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