Fermi estimate
Effective Altruism Wiki, April 26, 2021
Abstract
A Fermi estimate (or back-of-the-envelope calculation, often abbreviated BOTEC) is a rough calculation that aims to be right within about an order of magnitude, prioritizing getting an answer good enough to be useful without putting the large amounts of thought and research needed to attain greater accuracy. Fermi estimates typically approximate an answer by making various simplifying assumptions and decomposing the problem into smaller tractable units.
