Faster or slower?
A few days ago I ordered prescription refills. They will be delivered to our house from some remote location. The medications on my list come in two types: 1) plain old pills, requiring no special handling; and 2) temperature-sensitive insulin, which is usually sent in special packaging containing cold packs via expedited delivery.
I got a confirmation that the order was shipped. As expected, two different routes were to be used. The two different shipping methods promised these delivery times:
- 1 to 5 days; or
- 2 to 3 days.
The obvious question then is "which one is actually faster?"
Perhaps option #1 is faster, because it's delivery might arrive in only one day; of course, it could take a "business week" to get here, too. On the other hand, option #2 says it will guarantee to deliver as much as 2 days sooner, but maybe 1 or 2 days later than its competitor.
Perhaps the apparent average is a valid statistical approach? Average 3 days for #1, but only 2.5 days for #2; however, I rather doubt that they both would show a uniform distribution that would allow such a simple-minded "average".
It's a quandary, to be sure.
In: All, Curious Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.