Wednesday #48 - Mordor Expense Report

     Here's the question: how much did Mordor have to expense in eyedrops in order to keep the Eye of Sauron under control? Let's look at the math.

     Assuming that Mordor has access to a store in which eyedrops could be purchasable, the average cost for the eyedrops would be about $1 per .5 fl oz bottle, which adds up to about $250 per gallon. Now that we know how much per gallon, we'll need the dosage per day. 

   For eye inflammation (which is the scaled down version of the Eye's condition), the recommended dosage is 3-4 drops. Unfortuanately, the Eye of Sauron isn't the same siza an a normal human eye. It's bigger. A lot bigger. Keeping this in mind, the dosage volume will have to be adjusted. Based off of some rough estimations, the Eye would require about 3-4 gallons of eyedrops for one dosage. In addition to the increased size of the dosage, the frequency of application would have to increase as well, since being on fire is a whole lot worse than inflammtion. This next part is a complete guess, but it would seem like 4-5 doses a day is a solid estimate. Let's crunch the numbers:

        

                 $256 per gallon X 4 gallons per dose X 5 doses per day = $5,120 per day

     

     This comes out to about $1.9 million per fiscal year in eyedrops. Now, to anyone familiar with company expenses, 1.9 million dollars isn't all that much, but consider this: the Eye of Sauron has been in operation for over 300 years. Adding this to the equation, the total cost of eyedrops for all the operating years comes out to more than .5 billion dollars (~$688 million). And in the end, all of thihs was for nothing. 

     Based on a quick Google search, this means the Land of Mordor has to transport 75,000 gold coins each year to a Dollar General so they can buy 1.9 million .5 fl oz bottles of eyedrops. Have fun lugging that around.


There is a place where the sidewalk ends
and before the street begins,
and there the grass grows soft and white,
and there the sun burns crimson bright,
and there the moon-bird rests from his flight
to cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
and the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow
and watch where the chalk-white arrows go
to the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
and we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,
the place where the sidewalk ends. 

~Sheldon Allan Silverstein

"If two wrongs don't make a right, try three." - Laurence J. Peter