Related papers: Three problems for the clairvoyant demon
For some m \ge 4, let us color each column of the integer lattice L = Z^2 independently and uniformly into one of m colors. We do the same for the rows, independently from the columns. A point of L will be called blocked if its row and…
In this paper three unrelated problems will be discussed. What connects them is the rich methodology of classical probability theory. In the first two problems we have a complete answer to the problems raised; in the third case, what we…
This celebratory article contains a personal and idiosyncratic selection of a few open problems in discrete probability theory. These include certain well known questions concerning Lorentz scatterers and self-avoiding walks, and also some…
In this lecture I will talk about three mathematical puzzles involving mathematics and computation that have preoccupied me over the years. The first puzzle is to understand the amazing success of the simplex algorithm for linear…
Let v, w be infinite 0-1 sequences, and m a positive integer. We say that w is m-embeddable in v, if there exists an increasing sequence n_{i} of integers with n_{0}=0, such that 0< n_{i} - n_{i-1} < m, w(i) = v(n_i) for all i > 0. Let X…
We use the idea of the broken stick problem (which goes back to Poincare) and calculate the corresponding probabilities for the cases in which the three broken part are: the medians in a triangle, the altitudes, radii of excircles, angle…
A pair of random walks $(R,S)$ on the vertices of a graph $G$ is {\it successful} if two tokens can be scheduled (moving only one token at a time) to travel along $R$ and $S$ without colliding. We consider questions related to P. Winkler's…
One presents many Concatenated and Operation Sequences, P-Q Relationships, Digital Sequences, Magic Squares, Prime Conjectures, k-Divisibility and Strong Divisibility Sequences, Geometric Conjectures, Proposed problems.
The Illumination Problem may be phrased as the problem of covering a convex body in Euclidean $n$-space by a minimum number of translates of its interior. By a probabilistic argument, we show that, arbitrarily close to the Euclidean ball,…
I argue that we must distinguish between: (0) the Three-Doors-Problem Problem [sic], which is to make sense of some real world question of a real person. (1) a large number of solutions to this meta-problem, i.e., many specific…
We discuss coin-weighing problems with a new type of coin: a chameleon. A chameleon coin can mimic a fake or a real coin, and it can choose which coin to mimic for each weighing independently. We consider a mix of $N$ coins that include…
We study the integration and approximation problems for monotone and convex bounded functions that depend on $d$ variables, where $d$ can be arbitrarily large. We consider the worst case error for algorithms that use finitely many function…
The title of the article is identical to the title of Chapter 21 in Gardner (2001): because we are going to analyze the probability calculations and the ambiguity of the problem statements. We will analyze 3 out of 4 problems from Gardner…
These notes represent an extended version of a talk I gave for the participants of the IMO 2009 and other interested people. We introduce diophantine equations and show evidence that it can be hard to solve them. Then we demonstrate how one…
The Monty Hall puzzle has been solved and dissected in many ways, but always using probabilistic arguments, so it is considered a probability puzzle. In this paper the puzzle is set up as an orthodox statistical problem involving an unknown…
Over 300 sequences and many unsolved problems and conjectures related to them are presented herein together with theorems corollaries, formulae, examples, mathematical criteria, etc. (about integer sequences, numbers, quotients, residues,…
Logical theories have been developed which have allowed temporal reasoning about eventualities (a la Galton) such as states, processes, actions, events, processes and complex eventualities such as sequences and recurrences of other…
High-dimensional computational challenges are frequently explained via the curse of dimensionality, i.e., increasing the number of dimensions leads to exponentially growing computational complexity. In this commentary, we argue that…
In this pedestrian approach I give my personal point of view on the various problems posed by dark matter in the universe. After a brief historical overview I discuss the various solutions stemming from high energy particle physics, and the…
We study how correlations affect the performance of the simulator of a Maxwell's demon demonstrated in a recent optical experiment [Vidrighin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 050401 (2016)]. The power of the demon is found to be enhanced or…