• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 20:10
CET 02:10
KST 10:10
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
[BSL23] RO16 Group Stage14Weekly Cups (Nov 2-8): herO back on top?2Weekly Cups (Oct 26 - Nov 1): MaxPax, herO, Solar win0Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down23
StarCraft 2
General
Serral's getting trashed by New Catsle's Mind Weekly Cups (Nov 2-8): herO back on top? Liquibets sc2 season 30 No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon
Tourneys
soO & FanTaSy return! SC2 Kevin Scrim 4v4 (Nov 16) RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 Tasteless Time Warp: SC Evo Showmatch (May 25) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament iNu's Battles #22
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Starcraft 2 Advance [G] How to playtest arcade maps [D] the control group Simple Questions/Answers
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 551 Robotic Revival Mutation # 550 Graveyard Shift Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles
Brood War
General
[BSL23] RO16 Group Stage List of top players active on ShieldBattery BW General Discussion screpdb: new Starcraft reporting tool [BW] Looking for Clan Thread!
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL23] Ro16 Group C - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL23] Ro16 Group A - Saturday 21:00 CET 2v2v2v2 Tournament Stage 1: Community Poll
Strategy
Infested Terran strategies in 2026 Nuke strategy worked in K-League 2026-11-09 50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy)
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live!
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Trading/Investing Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Dating: How's your luck? European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Fan Club Resource Thread Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
The time I organised my…
AssyrianKing
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 14798 users

Nightmare Math Problem.

Blogs > Sgany
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
Sgany
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United Kingdom790 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-21 02:07:12
August 21 2011 02:03 GMT
#1
Ok tonight while I was watching a movie with the family it started buffering as it was being streamed. This made me think what is the number of seconds(to keep it simple) I must pause the video to, until I can watch it without it buffering again. Sounds simple right, well it turns into a nightmare.

The formula I have got are different for nearly every ratio.

A ratio of 10seconds playback(We shall call this V) and 12 seconds Buffering(We will call this B) is completely different than a ratio of 3V: 7B

For 3v: 7b I found out the % ratio which was 1%:2.33333333% and then worked out the critical mass was 53%, but I am unable to work out the critical mass for 10v:12b and other different ratios.

Could anyone help me come up with a global solution for this problem?

NaDa <3, MMA <3, Bisu <3,
Probe1
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States17920 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-21 14:03:50
August 21 2011 02:04 GMT
#2
It'd help if you quit smoking cigars when you're trying to solve complex formulas.

Edit: <3 I meant no cruelness but looking back I was a bit crass. Thanks for not jumping down my throat for the joke :p
우정호 KT_VIOLET 1988 - 2012 While we are postponing, life speeds by
Sgany
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United Kingdom790 Posts
August 21 2011 02:07 GMT
#3
On August 21 2011 11:04 Probe1 wrote:
It'd help if you quit smoking cigars when you're trying to solve complex formulas.


Fixed :D Thanks for that sir
NaDa <3, MMA <3, Bisu <3,
cz
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
United States3249 Posts
August 21 2011 02:11 GMT
#4
On August 21 2011 11:07 Sgany wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 21 2011 11:04 Probe1 wrote:
It'd help if you quit smoking cigars when you're trying to solve complex formulas.


Fixed :D Thanks for that sir


Thanks for what?
Lixler
Profile Joined March 2010
United States265 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-21 02:12:24
August 21 2011 02:11 GMT
#5
I too have devoted much thought to this most interesting of problems. Basically, we assume a constant loading rate and assume that this rate is lower than the playing rate, which is always 1 second/1second. In order to pause the least, we need our loaded amount to reach the total at exactly the same moment our watched amount reaches the total. So we need to pre-load Total - Loading rate*playtime. But playtime = total, so we can simplify to total*(1-loading rate). For a video of, say, 10 seconds and a loading rate of .5 seconds/second, we get that we need to load 5 seconds in advance. During those 5 seconds, we will load 2.5 seconds, putting us at 7.5 seconds. During those 2.5 seconds, we will load 1.25 seconds, putting us at 8.75 seconds. And we will asymptotically approach having watched the video, exactly as Zeno would have predicted.
huameng
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
United States1133 Posts
August 21 2011 02:12 GMT
#6
Can you explain what that ratio means? I feel like just finding the sum of an infinite geometric series will get your answer but then again I don't really understand your post.
skating
Sgany
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United Kingdom790 Posts
August 21 2011 02:12 GMT
#7
On August 21 2011 11:11 cz wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 21 2011 11:07 Sgany wrote:
On August 21 2011 11:04 Probe1 wrote:
It'd help if you quit smoking cigars when you're trying to solve complex formulas.


Fixed :D Thanks for that sir


Thanks for what?


When I typed 3V: 7B it came up as 3V:7B, he pointed out the error
NaDa <3, MMA <3, Bisu <3,
cz
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
United States3249 Posts
August 21 2011 02:13 GMT
#8
On August 21 2011 11:11 Lixler wrote:
I too have devoted much thought to this most interesting of problems. Basically, we assume a constant loading rate and assume that this rate is lower than the playing rate, which is always 1 second/1second. In order to pause the least, we need our loaded amount to reach the total at exactly the same moment our watched amount reaches the total. So we need to pre-load Total - Loading rate*playtime. But playtime = total, so we can simplify to total*(1-loading rate). For a video of, say, 10 seconds and a loading rate of .5 seconds/second, we get that we need to load 5 seconds in advance. During those 5 seconds, we will load 2.5 seconds, putting us at 7.5 seconds. During those 2.5 seconds, we will load 1.25 seconds, putting us at 8.75 seconds. And we will asymptotically approach having watched the video, exactly as Zeno would have predicted.


Zeno, the guy who works at Best Buy? Never knew he was good about this stuff, even tho he sold me a sweet LG plasma a week ago...
Hypertension
Profile Joined April 2011
United States802 Posts
August 21 2011 02:19 GMT
#9
How long it takes to buffer 1 second = B
Length of video in seconds = V
Waiting time = B*V-V
Buy boots first. Boots good item.
Sgany
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United Kingdom790 Posts
August 21 2011 02:22 GMT
#10
On August 21 2011 11:19 Hypertension wrote:
How long it takes to buffer 1 second = B
Length of video in seconds = V
Waiting time = B*V-V


That is simple to work out, what I want to know is the time it takes for the video WHILE buffering to reach a point where it is not completely buffered, but I can play it without it having to buffer at all.
NaDa <3, MMA <3, Bisu <3,
Severedevil
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States4839 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-21 02:33:51
August 21 2011 02:24 GMT
#11
Okay. You know how long the video is supposed to last; we'll call that the 'video time' and denote it by v. You don't know how long the video will take to buffer; we'll call that the 'buffer time', b.)

Now, how long do you have to pause your video and let it pre-buffer? The answer is however long it takes to buffer the full video, minus the amount of time it takes to play the full video, or b - v. If you want that as a percentage of the total buffer time, it's (b - v) / b, which is equal to 1 - (v / b).

You've already found v / b; it's the ratio you calculated. So just subtract it from 1, and you're done. (Multiply by a 100 if you want a percentage.)

So, for 10v:12b, you get 1 - (10/12) = ~17%. (This is the 'critical mass' point. You can start playing the video, and it will finish buffering right before you finish watching it. Assuming the video buffers at a constant rate, which may not be true.)

Also, I'm stealing this as a highly relatable algebra problem for students.
My strategy is to fork people.
sidr
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
United States55 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-21 02:31:04
August 21 2011 02:29 GMT
#12
I may be understanding this wrongly, but suppose we have L seconds left in our video and we buffer at a rate or R (R < 1, else no problem) playseconds/second. Then, buffering P (0<P<1) percent of the way and then playing the rest of the video, we want time in playseconds to buffer the rest = (L-PL) / R = L. Thus, L-PL = RL so PL = (1-R) L or P = 1-R. For your case, if R = (10 playseconds) / (12seconds), P = 1/6, i.e. if you let the video buffer for up to 1/6 of the remaining time, then play, you should have uninterrupted playback. I'm unsure exactly what critical mass means in your statement, however, so I may have completely misunderstood the problem

Edit: darn beaten
zEMPd
Profile Joined June 2011
Angola259 Posts
August 21 2011 02:30 GMT
#13
I have come up with the answer 7.
Hypertension
Profile Joined April 2011
United States802 Posts
August 21 2011 02:34 GMT
#14
On August 21 2011 11:22 Sgany wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 21 2011 11:19 Hypertension wrote:
How long it takes to buffer 1 second = B
Length of video in seconds = V
Waiting time = B*V-V


That is simple to work out, what I want to know is the time it takes for the video WHILE buffering to reach a point where it is not completely buffered, but I can play it without it having to buffer at all.



That is the waiting time, if you wait B*V-V seconds, you can start watching safely, assuming your internet has zero hiccups.
Buy boots first. Boots good item.
Sgany
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United Kingdom790 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-21 02:43:28
August 21 2011 02:35 GMT
#15
On August 21 2011 11:24 Severedevil wrote:
Okay. You know how long the video is supposed to last; we'll call that the 'video time' and denote it by v. You don't know how long the video will take to buffer; we'll call that the 'buffer time', b.)

Now, how long do you have to pause your video and let it pre-buffer? The answer is however long it takes to buffer the full video, minus the amount of time it takes to play the full video, or b - v. If you want that as a percentage of the total buffer time, it's (b - v) / b, which is equal to 1 - (v / b).

You've already found v / b; it's the ratio you calculated. So just subtract it from 1, and you're done. (Multiply by a 100 if you want a percentage.)

So, for 10v:12b, you get 1 - (10/12) = ~17%.

Also, I'm stealing this as a highly relatable algebra problem for students.


I love you and the other guys who mentioned this <3 It is a lot simplier if you do not use odd B to V ratios like 3v: 7b and ratios like 1v: 7b instead thank you sir :D
NaDa <3, MMA <3, Bisu <3,
ghrur
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States3787 Posts
August 21 2011 02:35 GMT
#16
On August 21 2011 11:24 Severedevil wrote:
Okay. You know how long the video is supposed to last; we'll call that the 'video time' and denote it by v. You don't know how long the video will take to buffer; we'll call that the 'buffer time', b.)

Now, how long do you have to pause your video and let it pre-buffer? The answer is however long it takes to buffer the full video, minus the amount of time it takes to play the full video, or b - v. If you want that as a percentage of the total buffer time, it's (b - v) / b, which is equal to 1 - (v / b).

You've already found v / b; it's the ratio you calculated. So just subtract it from 1, and you're done. (Multiply by a 100 if you want a percentage.)

So, for 10v:12b, you get 1 - (10/12) = ~17%. (This is the 'critical mass' point. You can start playing the video, and it will finish buffering right before you finish watching it. Assuming the video buffers at a constant rate, which may not be true.)

Also, I'm stealing this as a highly relatable algebra problem for students.


What this guy said. It's basically a geometric series.
darkness overpowering
itachisan
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
Canada109 Posts
August 21 2011 03:08 GMT
#17
nerds

User was warned for this post
SarR
Profile Joined June 2011
476 Posts
August 21 2011 05:41 GMT
#18
On August 21 2011 12:08 itachisan wrote:
nerds

User was warned for this post

Paraphrase:-
"Watching all these people talk about stuff that I cant understand makes me feel like a dumbass and left out because it reminds me that I'm intellectually inadequate which renders me unable to participate in intelligent discussions. In order to salvage some pride, I'm going to attempt to make them feel like they are the losers by labeling them using a word which traditionally carries such connotations thereby making me feel superior by virtue of being intellectually inadequate. In other words I get to be "cool" by not knowing shit"
itachisan
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
Canada109 Posts
August 21 2011 15:52 GMT
#19
On August 21 2011 14:41 SarR wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 21 2011 12:08 itachisan wrote:
nerds

User was warned for this post

Paraphrase:-
"Watching all these people talk about stuff that I cant understand makes me feel like a dumbass and left out because it reminds me that I'm intellectually inadequate which renders me unable to participate in intelligent discussions. In order to salvage some pride, I'm going to attempt to make them feel like they are the losers by labeling them using a word which traditionally carries such connotations thereby making me feel superior by virtue of being intellectually inadequate. In other words I get to be "cool" by not knowing shit"


^ nerd.

User was temp banned for this post.
xxpack09
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States2160 Posts
August 21 2011 16:10 GMT
#20
On August 22 2011 00:52 itachisan wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 21 2011 14:41 SarR wrote:
On August 21 2011 12:08 itachisan wrote:
nerds

User was warned for this post

Paraphrase:-
"Watching all these people talk about stuff that I cant understand makes me feel like a dumbass and left out because it reminds me that I'm intellectually inadequate which renders me unable to participate in intelligent discussions. In order to salvage some pride, I'm going to attempt to make them feel like they are the losers by labeling them using a word which traditionally carries such connotations thereby making me feel superior by virtue of being intellectually inadequate. In other words I get to be "cool" by not knowing shit"


^ nerd.


rofl

gets warned then immidiately makes the same post again

Is there a reason you agressively lash out at people who have different interests than you?
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 8h 51m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 1942
Artosis 638
Shuttle 253
ProTech81
soO 14
910 12
Britney 0
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm87
League of Legends
JimRising 516
Counter-Strike
taco 445
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox770
AZ_Axe124
Other Games
summit1g8348
tarik_tv5691
Day[9].tv653
shahzam522
PiGStarcraft332
C9.Mang0193
Maynarde137
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV134
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 107
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• imaqtpie1026
• Day9tv653
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
8h 51m
KCM Race Survival
8h 51m
WardiTV Invitational
10h 51m
Lambo vs Shameless
Rogue vs uThermal
Percival vs YoungYakov
TBD vs GgMaChine
OSC
14h 51m
OSC
21h 51m
ArT vs MindelVK
MiniZergUA vs TBD
Shameless vs TBD
Ultimate Battle
1d 10h
OSC
1d 12h
OSC
1d 22h
ByuN vs MaxPax
herO vs Krystianer
Percival vs Shameless
LetaleX vs YoungYakov
Nicoract vs Gerald
GgMaChine vs ArT
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
IPSL
2 days
TerrOr vs IJ_Terran
rasowy vs Hazorath
[ Show More ]
BSL
2 days
TerrOr vs OyAji
UltrA vs Gosudark
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
IPSL
3 days
Art_Of_Turtle vs KameZerg
Radley vs George
BSL
3 days
Artosis vs Dewalt
Ret vs Tech
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
PiGosaur Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-11-09
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
Individual League
BSL Season 23
IPSL Winter 2026-27
Calamity Cup Div. A Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026

Upcoming

YSL S4
Sector 591
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
StarCraft2 Weekly Open Tournament 2026 Grand Finals
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Underdog Cup 2026 Div 2-3
PGL Bucharest 2027
BLAST Bounty Winter 2027
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.