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When will your elevator arrive? Two physicists do the math (phys.org)
36 points by dnetesn on May 5, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments



This is how SimTower started:

"Saito had a background in architecture, and one day, he found himself fascinated by how elevators work – how they decide which floors to go to and who’s responsible for making them efficient. When he called an elevator company to ask, they declined to give him an answer. So with the help from programmer Takumi Abe, he designed a simulation to see how elevators operate in a crowded building."

https://obscuritory.com/sim/simtower-the-vertical-empire/


The study might be oversimplified since large buildings have various strategies to improve wait times. Sometimes there are designated "express" and "local" cars. Sometimes idle cars get pre-positioned at various floors to keep them closer to new calls. Sometimes pre-positioning will be adjusted by time of day, ie assuming most people enter in the morning and leave in the evening. Etc etc.


Obligatory link to Elevator Saga: http://play.elevatorsaga.com/


The last time i played that it turned into a second job for a few days


Elevators definitely need progress bars.


Sounds more like queuing theory than physics


Physicists can't know queuing theory? /s




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