Early during the Industrial Revolution, Thomas Malthus and others postulated "The Law of Diminishing Returns" which states: "When increasing amounts of one factor of production are employed in production along with a fixed amount of some other production factor, after some point, the resulting increases in output of product become smaller and smaller."

The theory has been critiqued as a simplistic approach that works only in the "short run." But when there exists two big factors, one fixed and one variable, the connection does seem strong. For example, when washing one's hair, the fixed factor is its "dirtiness" and the variable factor is shampoo. Washing once might clean, let's say, 75% of the dirt. Rinsing and repeating may further clean 75% of the remaining 25% of the dirt, or a rough total of 94%, (probably worth the effort.) Rinsing and repeating again only raises the "cleanliness" 4.5%, (probably not worth the effort.)

I'm using the concept of diminishing returns in a compression algorithm to move as close as possible to the theoretical limits as set forth by Claude E. Shannon.

Favorites: Patently Absurd * Sir Arthur C. Clarke * W. Daniel Hillis * Claude E. Shannon -2 * The New York Times * The Buckminster Fuller Institute * Chautauqua * LuLu Press * Dan Bricklin * William Dunk