| Article ID: | iaor2001191 |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Volume: | 36 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page Number: | 38 |
| End Page Number: | 40 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 2000 |
| Journal: | Mathematics Today |
| Authors: | Matthews Robert |
With its probabilistic roots, queueing theory offers a promising hunting ground for surprising and counter-intuitive results. The author highlights five such results that emerge from elementary queueing theory, and shows how they cast light on several long-standing issues, such as ‘Murphy's Law of Queues’ and the length of queues at public toilets.