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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life

Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.

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Queuing Backwards

04/09/2015 GMT

BBC World Service - More or Less, Queuing Backwards

Would life be better if we served the last person to join a queue not the first.

Would life be better if we served the last person to join a queue not the first. And Guru Madhavan tells us why we should think like an engineer.

Queuing backwards
Britons love to queue, but have we been getting it wrong? Lars Peter Osterdal from the University of Southern Denmark discusses his theory of how to make queuing more efficient.  

Thinking Like an Engineer
Engineer Guru Madhavan tells the story of the development of the barcode and argues that those making policy should ask engineers as well as economists about solving social problems.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Wesley Stephenson

(Photo: Commuters queue for buses Credit: AFP Wires)

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