Buffett number
A definition of the Buffett number, by Libb Thims (2007), as ratio, to a hundred, of the number of books one has read on any given subject, a Buffett number of 0.5 being seasoned scholar, 1.0 being professor level, greater than 1.0 being expert level. [1]
In numbers, Buffett number, the number "100", is the number of books that one has to read on a given subject to know more than the average college professor who teaches that subject knows. [1]

Etymology
The term was coined by American chemical engineer Libb Thims, between 2001-2005, sometime after a reading of the 1995 book Buffett: the Making of an American Capitalist, which describes the early biography of American business mogul Warren Buffet. [2]

Overview
In 1947, two-months shy of his seventeenth birthday, American business mogul Warren Buffett had read at least one hundred books on business. Shortly thereafter, he entered the Wharton School of Finance, wherein upon arrival he reported that ‘he knew more than the professors’. On a return trip home, Warren was warned not to neglect his studies. To this he replied insouciantly, ‘all I need to do is open the book the night before and drink a big bottle of Pepsi-Cola and I’ll make 100.’ [2] The Buffett-number is the gauge of basic intellectual competence on any given subject. That is, for one to be fluent in their line of work or topic of interest, one needs to read one-hundred books on that subject. To be relatively knowledgeable on any given subject, one needs read fifty books, so to reach the ½ Buffett-number.

Human thermodynamics
A pre-requisite to a residual understanding of basic human thermodynamics, not necessarily in terms of elementary principles, but rather in terms of an intuitive idea of the visual conception of the state equations and the physics parameters used in the application and modeling of daily human life, in its most basic, i.e. work, play, love, hate, etc., is to have a Buffett-number level competency. In the 2007 textbook Human Chemistry, Thims outlined the view that “in human thermodynamics, to have a residual, basic, or intuitive understanding of the thermodynamics of human life, one needs to read, at a minimum, one hundred books and textbooks on thermodynamics, with focus on those in the specific area of chemical thermodynamics.” [1]

References
1. (a) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume Two), (pgs. 653-54). (preview), (Google books). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
(b) Buffett number (HT Glossary) - Institute of Human Thermodynamics.
2. Lowenstein, Roger. (1995). Buffett: the Making of an American Capitalist, (pgs. 28-29). New York: Broadway Books.

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