Every few months I go to the
Wellington for beer and food
(bringing the food with me; they don't have a food licence, but do
provide plates and cutlery).
The beer pumps are numbered, which simplifies ordering, but one
has to remember "a 5, two 6s, half a 10 and half a 14" all the way
from the table to the bar. This is hard work. So here's a much easier
system.
Start with a list of the first 30 prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, etc.
Assign these to beer orders: a half on pump 1 is 2, a pint on pump 1
is 3, a half on pump 2 is 5, etc. Then multiply the orders together:
the order above becomes 29 × 37² × 67 × 103, or 273976601, which is
just as easy to remember as a phone number with dialling code
(027-397-6601).
The bar staff factor the number, reverse the lookup, and pull the
pints; prime-factoring nine-digit numbers is obviously a trivial task
in a busy and noisy pub, adding no great effort to the existing job.
I call upon the management of the Wellington to implement this simple
scheme as soon as possible.
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