Useless Math, Episode 1: How Much Money Did The Paradox Paradox Crowdfund?
I am starting a series where I find something completely useless to calculate, and calculate related items, for NO OTHER REASON than I am bored as all balls. This first episode of this useless math series is about a book that I might actually read (I don’t usually read books) called The Paradox Paradox by Daniel Hardcastle. Luckily, Unbound gives us a LOT of information to work with. The goal is to see how much the book crowdfunded, to as exact of a number as we can get. We will also look into what was the crowdfunding goal for the project.
The base information
We know for a fact that The Paradox Paradox has been crowdfunded 833% above the original goal (at the time of writing) by 3,232 people. We will be using US$ (or United States Dollar) amounts.
Other important numbers
We have a bunch of “perks” listed on the page, of which are of varying amounts and patronage. LUCKILY they all have the number of people who pledged that amount associated with them, and it doesn’t seem to mix. This is good because this makes it super easy to calculate. There are 16 total perks listed, ranging from $8 to $1,851,855, which is a long-range. Practically speaking, because the $1,851,855 tier is unbought, it’s more like $8 to $1,500. Some tiers are the same price as other tiers, I will be lumping them all into dollar amounts over the different tiers approach.
The Mathematics and Totals
To calculate this, we need simple mathematics. The different dollar amounts are $8, $15, $20, $30, $75, $120, $150, $450, and $1,500. For each dollar amount, $8 got 208 pledges, $15 got 40 pledges, $20 has 119 pledges, $30 has 351 pledges, $75 has 40 + 56 + 113 + 83 + 20 pledges(as there are multiple $75 tiers), $120 has 47 + 25 pledges, $150 has 167 pledges, $450 has 29 + 27 pledges, and $1,500 has 5 pledges. While I could take the less time-consuming route and calculate based route and calculate close enough by taking the averages of all of these, I have all of these numbers in my hands. The calculation for the total is as follows: TOTAL = 8(208) + 15(40) + 20 (119) + 30(351) + 75(40 + 56 + 113 + 83 + 20) + 120(47 + 25) + 150(167) + 450(29 + 27) + 1,500(5).
The grand total would then be a WHOPPING $104,964 total crowdfunded. But remember, this is 833% of what Dan Hardcastle wanted to write the book. Now since I am lazy, I found a percentage calculator online, and it tells me that Daniel asked for ~$12,600. The number wasn’t PERFECT because there is a little bit of variation and the fact that Daniel is based in the UK (which would be him asking for ~GB$9,273 in British currency).
