When leaving an airplane, it usually takes some time. The question is whether this time could be shortened if all passengers obey certain rules (this is in particular important if the bus is waiting outside and only the time when the last passenger leaves the airplane is relevant to all). Test three different strategies on this simulation applet.
The three possible strategies are:
1) Elbow fight---everybody moves if able to. This strategy can be selected under "elbow" in the applet below.
2) Row strategy (select "row below). I have seen polite passengers applying this rule. Passengers more in the back wait until all rows before them are cleared until they head to the entrance.
3) Aisle strategy (select "aisle" in the applet below). All passengers in the window seats are asked to remain seated until the two (and then actually all) passengers in the two aisle seats in the back passed them. Only then are they supposed to proceed to the exit.
By clicking on the "Start" button (or on the "Fast" button for a faster simulation) passengers move to the red exit. When the last one is out, the time stops clicking. You can select the strategy, and also with what passengers you want to do your experiments. The passengers are seated randomly. Each passenger has a certain reaction span until he or she sees that he/she can move. Each passenger also has an individual speed of walking and also an individual time to collect hand baggage, usually in the aisle next to his/her place. During collecting this hand baggage, the person is displayed as a square rather than as a circle. The last number in the control row (initially a "1" indicates a factor by which this hand baggage time will be multiplied for each passenger---by replacing this number by 2 or 3 you get simulations with double or triple the hand baggage collecting time.
As explained before, each person has three individual parameters: Reaction time, speed, and hand baggage collecting time. There are three groups of passengers, all three available in small (25 passengers) and large (50 passengers). As explained above, you can also increase the hand baggage collection time for all passengers by a factor, thereby you have in principle much more than the six predefined passenger groups. The passenger data are on this Excel sheet.
Your task is to simulate (use the "Fast" button, since you need many simulations in each case) the passengers leaving the airplane. Make statistics for different groups and for different strategies. Which strategy is best for which passenger group? Display the x-bar distributions for one of these groups---do they look normal? Also you should describe the three groups statistically.
Erich Prisner, December 2005