Researchers have decoded handwritten notes by the late physicist Richard Feynman, uncovering a mathematical formula for choosing the best restaurant while visiting a city. The work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, addresses the classic 'stopping problem' of when to stop searching and commit to a dining option.
Feynman's interest was sparked by a lunch with his friend Ralph Leighton at a Thai restaurant in California in the 1970s. Leighton debated whether to stick with his favourite ginger chicken or try a new dish. Feynman turned the dilemma into a mathematical problem, but his notes remained inscrutable for decades until the team deciphered them.
According to Feynman's solution, diners should try a different restaurant each night until they find one that exceeds a declining threshold of quality. The threshold drops more rapidly as the number of remaining nights decreases, reflecting the diminishing value of exploring when there is less time to enjoy a find.
Co-author Prof Tom Griffiths of Princeton University explained: 'The essence of the problem is that the value of exploring decreases the opportunities you’re going to have to make use of that information.' The team also tested how people behave, recruiting 2,520 participants for an online task. They found that people intuitively lower their threshold linearly with the proportion of nights remaining, a simpler but effective strategy.
The researchers note that the optimal strategy depends on the distribution of restaurant quality. In cities with many poor options but a few gems, it is worth exploring longer; where most restaurants are similarly good, the threshold should be lower. The findings offer a mathematical framework for holiday dining decisions.
