Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half
Looking at the paper, it seems the passengers were the same and boarded five times in a row, with the last two methods proving the fastest. The major experimental flaw seems to be that the passengers themselves might learn to become more efficient after concentrating on a normally rare task, and repeating it several times in a row. Also, since some of them were paid extras, they might just be getting impatient by the end, and rushing through at what would normally be an uncomfortable pace. The population sampling is also probably not representative.<p>I would have found the experiment more convincing if it had been used to validate the basic assumptions of the theoretical model instead (e.g. the statistical distribution of the baggage loading and seating times).