This made me curious, and while I could have done the long-form math, I’m about to go to bed, so I asked a popular LLM:
To estimate the number of diamonds one could mine in vanilla Minecraft for 40 hours per week over a year, we need to consider a few factors:
- Diamonds per hour: This varies based on mining efficiency, methods used (e.g., branch mining, strip mining), and luck.
- Hours per week: 40 hours.
- Weeks per year: 52 weeks.
Estimation of Diamonds per Hour
A reasonable average estimate, assuming effective branch mining techniques and using the Fortune III enchantment, is approximately 10 diamonds per hour. This estimate can vary significantly depending on mining strategies and in-game conditions, but it's a good baseline for our calculation.
Calculation
- Hours per week: 40
- Weeks per year: 52
- Total hours per year: 40 x 52 = 2080
- Diamonds per hour: 10 (average estimate)
Now, multiplying the total hours by the average number of diamonds mined per hour:
Total diamonds = 2080 x 10 = 20,800
Conclusion
Mining efficiently in vanilla Minecraft for 40 hours per week over a year, one could mine approximately 20,800 diamonds.
This yield would never match the returns of the $100,000 up front.