Algorithm to measure how "diffused" 5,000 pennies are in an economy?
- by makerofthings7
Please allow me to use this example/metaphor to describe an algorithm I need.
Objects
There are 5 thousand pennies.
There are 50 cups.
There is a tracking history (Passport "stamp" etc) that is associated with each penny as it moves between cups.
Definition
I'll define a "highly diffused" penny as one that passes through many cups.
A "poorly diffused" penny is one that either passes back and forth between 2 cups
Question
How can I objectively measure the diffusion of a penny as:
The number of moves the penny has gone through
The number of cups the penny has been in
A unit of time (day, week, month)
Why am I doing this? I want to detect if a cup is hoarding pennies.
Resistance from bad actors
Since hoarding is bad, the "bad cup" may simply solicit a partner and simply move pennies between each other. This will reduce the amount of time a coin isn't in transit, and would skew hoarding detection.
A solution might be to detect if a cup (or set of cups) are common "partners" with each other, though I'm not sure how to think though this problem.
Broad applicability
Any assistance would be helpful, since I would think that this algorithm is common to
Economics
The study of migration patterns of animals, citizens of a country
Other natural occurring phenomena
... and probably exists as a term or concept I'm unfamiliar with.
