Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

[samvara]

Had low expectations, enjoyed it anyway. The fights scenes were entertaining - I appreciate an entire scene being staged around something as silly as a profiterole.

I’m a little confused by the missionary romance with the mermaid since I assume when she ‘rescued’ him she shagged him and ate him - I was hoping the final scene that the Pirates movies are famous for would be Syrena looking well fed and smug or something but alas.

The 545 test asks: given the ratio of male to female incidental characters (background characters) described within a given text, could the population of a world sustain itself?

This is too amusing to not do, initial stats below assuming we bring the mermaids forward as part of our hypothetical Minimum Viable Population (MVP). NB: Have used all characters. not just incidental ones.

	Gender
Female	4 or 7%
Male	42 or 78%
Mermaid	8 or 14 %

Stats after the mermaids and the humans reproduce. Assuming males, for mermaid purposes, are single use and the species have comparable gestation times, assuming Judy Dench is over reproducing age so the actual human females available to reproduce is 3, assuming zero infant mortality and 50/50 gender births for humans.

Round #1

	Adult	Child	Total
Female	4	1.5	5.5 or 10%
Male	34	1.5	35.5 or 62%
Mermaid	8	8	16 or 28%

Round #2

	Adult	Child	Total
Female	4	3	7 or 12%
Male	26	3	29 or 48%
Mermaid	8	16	24 or 40%

Round #3

	Adult	Child	Total
Female	4	4.5	8.5 or 12%
Male	18	4.5	22.5 or 32%
Mermaid	8	32	40 or 56%

Round #4

	Adult	Child	Total
Female	4	6	10 or 14%
Male	10	6	16 or 22%
Mermaid	8	40	48 or 65%

Of course now society collapses because 14 human adults are caring for 12 human children, the women are physically exhausted, the remaining men have PTSD and a pathological fear of the water and the mermaids are holding conferences titled "Men: A Sustainable Approach".

Alternatively, let's assume 3 children per potential breeder, wait 16 years and do more rounds (Judy Dench dies of old age - peacefully - in this scenario).

Starting Position:

	Adult	Child	Total
Female	7.5	0	7.5 or 11%
Male	10	0	10 or 32%
Mermaid	40	0	40 or 57%

Round #1

	Adult	Child	Total
Female	7.5	3.75	11.25 or 17%
Male	0	3.75	3.75 or 6%
Mermaid	40	10	50 or 77%

Game ends.

Comments

[fred_mouse]

whee - with assumptions like that, you could get a modelling job. Now, for me to resist the temptation to rewrite it as an iterative model (say, iterating every year to see whether any given woman has a child/children, and whether she has twins, that kind of thing)that means that things the birth ratio is random, but based on the expected sex ratio, and things like that. Then multiple runs would tell whether or not the population is ongoing.

oh, and possibly spoilery question - why are men single use for the mermaids?

[samvara]

First assume the horse is spherical...

*grins* I had to make a number of assumptions to get started, I'm aware it's not very real world ;)

Single use: from what I can tell they drag them underwater and tear them to pieces.

[samvara]

Any idea what the F/M ratio is to ensure an ongoing population?

[callistra]

I love the idea of a conference titled "Men: A Sustainable Approach"

Just beautiful

[samvara]

Hee!

More than 8 mermaids...

[ariaflame]

I'm fairly sure there were more than that. OK, only that many around the boat but plenty during other scenes. You did say all characters. Or do CGI ones not count?

Re: More than 8 mermaids...

[samvara]

I only counted ones named in the credits.