#2 How many airplanes do Indians take in one year?

Important: Our answer can fall within a factor of 10. To understand more, click here.

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Solution

Let's break this problem into two parts :

- How many Indians are there

- How many flights do each of them take

In 2020, there are 1.38 * 10^9 Indians on the planet.

The average Indian earns about ‎₹ 32,000 per month. Average annual tickets are around

₹ 6000. It is safe to assume, then, that most of them can travel once per year i.e - 2 flights.

Only a small percentage travel more than once per year or more than 4 flights.

The total number of flights can be assumed to be between 2 and 4 or, 3 per Indian.

Thus, the total number of flights can be 3 * 1.38 * 10^9

Or, Or, 4.14 * 10^9 flights (4140 million)

Our answer is off by the actual answer with about a factor of 10

The actual number of flights taken by Indians is 344 million (or 3.44 * 10^8).

However, this is still a good guess as a factor of 10 is enough to make most decisions. You can find out more here.