Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 April 12

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April 12

McDonald’s model

I know many McDonald’s stores are franchises worldwide but are their global companies directly owned by McDonald’s Corporation or are they completely independent companies? 90.198.251.144 (talk) 10:38, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Discussed at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 November 3#Golden arches. 86.135.82.93 (talk) 14:39, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Approximately 90% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned by franchisees instead of the parent company, according to this interesting 2018 article that discusses the tensions between the franchisees and the parent corporation. The company's goal is to take this percentage to 95%. Although the legal structure may vary from country to country, McDonald's itself is a single company under central management. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 00:18, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Social distancing rhombus

During the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, have there been four people standing in as the four vertices of a rhombus with each side of the rhombus, as well as the two diagonals, being at least six feet long? Just having each side being six feet or longer is not enough, because an isosceles triangle with its two legs being six feet long could have a base that is shorter than six feet long. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 15:37, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Are you asking for an image or diagram depicting how 4 people should stand? I am sure that there have been lots of instances where 4 people have stood at least 6ft. from each other (including diagonally), but don’t know if it has been intentionally diagrammed. Blueboar (talk) 16:29, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Under the constraint that each pair of people should maintain at least a given distance, the optimal arrangement under the minimax distance measure is to put them on the corners of a square whose sides have that distance as their lengths. Groups of only a few people having a conversation would, I expect, tend to approximate the corner positions of a regular polygon, which for four people is indeed a square – which is also a special case of a rhombus. For minimizing the sum of squares, all rhombi satisfying the constraints with sides of that length have the same score.  --Lambiam 21:49, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

You seem really smart and all but I have no idea what your last sentence is about. If four people are standing in a square then what is the "sum of squares"? --163.202.51.15 (talk) 11:58, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

If someone can't figure out how far 6 feet or 2 meters is, they might need to go back to elementary school. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:26, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

See also... --76.71.6.31 (talk) 01:29, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

• I am yet to understand why the authorities are not talking about a circle of separation with radius 1.5 or 2 metres, rather than any shape with straight edges. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 01:38, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Talking about a circle (or zone of isolation) would certainly be appropriate for larger groups... but the authorities don’t WANT larger groups. They want people thinking in terms of one-on-one interactions. Blueboar (talk) 02:42, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Of course. But others could, in general, approach from any direction. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 08:50, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Positioning $N$ individuals equidistantly along the circumference of a circle with radius $r$ will place them at (Euclidean) distances of $(2\sin(\pi /N))\cdot r$ apart. Putting $r=2~\mathrm {metre}$, that amounts to:

$N=2\rightarrow 4.00\mathrm {m}$

$N=3\rightarrow 3.46\mathrm {m}$

$N=4\rightarrow 2.83\mathrm {m}$

$N=5\rightarrow 2.35\mathrm {m}$

$N=6\rightarrow 2.00\mathrm {m}$

$N=7\rightarrow 1.74\mathrm {m}$

$N=8\rightarrow 1.53\mathrm {m}$

$N=9\rightarrow 1.37\mathrm {m}$

For six people this is perfect, but smaller groups would get positioned unnecessarily far apart, while larger groups get unsanitarily close. Instead, the authorities should recommend that people position themselves equidistantly along the circumference of a circle with radius

$r={\frac {d}{2\sin(\pi /N))}},$

where $d$ is the recommended interpersonal distance. I don't understand why the authorities do not issue their recommendations in this form. It offers the perfect combination of social distancing and social Darwinism.  --Lambiam 09:11, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Am I wrong in saying that you've over-thought this? If the authorities issued their advice in the above form, they'd be instantly laughed out of office, both by those very few who could understand it and by the vast majority who couldn't. Since we're not supposed to be out in groups, we're talking about supermarket encounters with random single strangers, not about being surrounded by groups of people spaced equidistantly around a circle. Those random single strangers can be to one's left, right, front, back, or any other vector you care to name. As long as they don't come within the recommended distance (1.5 or 2 metres), it's all good. Just like a cone of silence or a force field dome, the zone of safety is circular, not square or rectangular. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:57, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Schools attended by Kuhio

Trying to find what school is mentioned in this newspaper clip. Question is if Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole also attended the Royal Agricultural College alongside his brother David as claimed here (looking for more contemporary sources such as school records) and what the name of the "business college" was. KAVEBEAR (talk) 23:27, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

This source from 1903 lists two commercial colleges in London: Clark's Commercial College and South London Commercial Training College. The former is mentioned on Wikipedia as an alma mater of Margaret Lin Xavier, who was the daughter of a Thai Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, so one may assume that the College was reasonably posh.  --Lambiam 00:39, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Here is a page devoted to the history of Clark's College.  --Lambiam 07:17, 13 April 2020 (UTC)