How a Richard Feynman formula could explain your dining habits in a new city

[erronis]

https://phys.org/news/2026-06-richard-feynman-formula-dining-habits.html
Paul Arnold

One of the dilemmas facing anyone in a new and unfamiliar city is where to dine out. You might consult guides, speak to locals, check reviews, and ultimately, try your luck. But if you're there for a while, at some point you're going to be asking yourself whether to visit new eateries or stick to the ones you've already tried and liked.

Feynman's napkin notes

This is known as a classic explore-exploit dilemma and was something the late physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman pondered during a restaurant meal with a friend in the 1970s. His companion was debating whether to order his favorite dish or try something new. Feynman turned the question into a math problem and solved it there and then, scribbling his workings on pieces of paper.

Feynman, who died in 1988, never published his solution, but researchers came across his handwritten notes and not only deciphered them, but also put the solution to the test.

Details of their research are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

. . .

[NNadir]

1. Now that is interesting. I hope to have tome to come back to this post and check it out.

[usonian]

2. Free paper at PNAS

https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2509612123

[3Hotdogs]

3. His solution is in the drawings: Pizza and square pan pizza - and he had to go through all that shit to figure it out?

The little drawing - - - = no. thin crust pizza.