The Data EngineeringBeta

Law

What you are billed

The metered quantity is never the useful work. It is a proxy that the vendor can observe, attribute to you and defend.

billed = ⌈ \frac{q}{g} ⌉ \times g \times r

$q$: Metered quantity; the metered quantity
$g$: Granularity; the increment you are charged in
$r$: Rate; the price per unit

Trade-off: Cost as a substitutable resource

How it behaves

One input on the horizontal axis, the others held fixed.

Data table

Billed ÷ used, by job length (60-second minimum increment)
Job length (seconds)	Billed ÷ used
1	60×
1.08	55.4×
1.17	51.1×
1.27	47.2×
1.38	43.6×
1.49	40.2×
1.62	37.1×
1.75	34.3×
1.9	31.6×
2.05	29.2×
2.22	27×
2.41	24.9×
2.61	23×
2.83	21.2×
3.06	19.6×
3.32	18.1×
3.59	16.7×
3.89	15.4×
4.22	14.2×
4.57	13.1×
4.95	12.1×
5.36	11.2×
5.81	10.3×
6.29	9.54×
6.81	8.8×
7.38	8.13×
8	7.5×
8.66	6.93×
9.38	6.39×
10.2	5.9×
11	5.45×
11.9	5.03×
12.9	4.64×
14	4.29×
15.2	3.96×
16.4	3.65×
17.8	3.37×
19.3	3.11×
20.9	2.87×
22.6	2.65×
24.5	2.45×
26.5	2.26×
28.7	2.09×
31.1	1.93×
33.7	1.78×
36.5	1.64×
39.6	1.52×
42.9	1.4×
46.4	1.29×
50.3	1.19×
54.5	1.1×
59	1.02×
63.9	1.88×
69.3	1.73×
75	1.6×
81.3	1.48×
88	1.36×
95.4	1.26×
103	1.16×
112	1.07×
121	1.48×
131	1.37×
142	1.27×
154	1.17×
167	1.08×
181	1.33×
196	1.23×
212	1.13×
230	1.04×
249	1.2×
270	1.11×
292	1.03×
316	1.14×
343	1.05×
371	1.13×
402	1.04×
436	1.1×
472	1.02×
511	1.06×
554	1.08×
600	1×

Worked examples, recomputed

Every number the mechanisms quote for this relationship is recomputed from it, so none of them disagrees with it.

Where it appears

Each mechanism states it in its own names. The general symbol each name stands for is shown with it.

Cost Mechanics
What is metered, and what is the smallest increment you are charged for?
$billed = ceil (q \div g) \times g \times r$
Read it in place →

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