Piano Tuners in Manhattan

Difficulty
Medium
Skills
Communication
Deconstruction
Thought Process

Description

How many piano tuners are there in New York City?

Solution

  1. Roughly how many people live in New York City?β€Šβ€”β€Š8,000,000
  1. Does every person own a piano?β€Šβ€”β€Šno
  1. Can we assume that families own pianos, not individuals?β€Šβ€”β€Šyes
  1. How large is the average family?β€Šβ€”β€Š5 people
  1. So how many families are there in NYC?β€Šβ€”β€Š1,600,000
  1. Does every family own a piano?β€Šβ€”β€Šno… perhaps one in ten does
  1. So how many pianos are there in NYC?β€Šβ€”β€Š160,000
  1. How often per year do pianos need to be tuned?β€Šβ€”β€Šonce per year
  1. How many piano tunings can one piano tuner do?β€Šβ€”β€Šlet’s say 4 per day, so if there’s 200 working days in a year, that’s 800 per year
  1. So how many piano tuners could NYC support?β€”Β 160,000/800 = 200 piano tuners