Related papers: Intransitive Dice

The Collatz and $abc$ conjectures, both well known and thoroughly studied, appear to be largely unrelated at first sight. We show that assuming the $abc$ conjecture true is helpful to improve the lower bound of integers initiating a…

Suppose we have $n$ dice, each with $s$ faces (assume $s\geq n$). On the first turn, roll all of them, and remove from play those that rolled an $n$. Roll all of the remaining dice. In general, if at a certain turn you are left with $k$…

We show that for every $k$, the probability that a randomly selected vertex of a random binary search tree on $n$ nodes is at distance $k-1$ from the closest leaf converges to a rational constant $c_k$ as $n$ goes to infinity.

Let $S=(d_1,d_2,d_3, \ldots )$ be an infinite sequence of rolls of independent fair dice. For an integer $k \geq 1$, let $L_k=L_k(S)$ be the smallest $i$ so that there are $k$ integers $j \leq i$ for which $\sum_{t=1}^j d_t$ is a prime.…

Let $S=(a_1)\cdots(a_k)$ be a minimal zero-sum sequence over a finite cyclic group $G$. The index conjecture states that if $k=4$ and $\gcd(|G|,6)=1$, then $S$ has index 1. In this note we study the index conjecture and connect it to a…

(l) I have enough evidence to render the sentence S probable. (la) So, relative to what I know, it is rational of me to believe S. (2) Now that I have more evidence, S may no longer be probable. (2a) So now, relative to what I know, it is…

Consider a random multigraph G* with given vertex degrees d_1,...,d_n, contructed by the configuration model. We show that, asymptotically for a sequence of such multigraphs with the number of edges (d_1+...+d_n)/2 tending to infinity, the…

Given a (possibly infinite) subset $A$ of the natural numbers, we ask how many times a fair six-sided die must be rolled until the rolled numbers add up to an element of $A$. Using a one-dimensional dynamic programming recursion together…

Let R=(r_1, ..., r_m) and C=(c_1, ..., c_n) be positive integer vectors such that r_1 +... + r_m=c_1 +... + c_n. We consider the set Sigma(R, C) of non-negative mxn integer matrices (contingency tables) with row sums R and column sums C as…

Let $A$ be an $n \times n$ random matrix with independent identically distributed non-constant subgaussian entries. Then for any $k \le c \sqrt{n}$, \[ \text{rank}(A) \ge n-k \] with probability at least $1-\exp(-c'kn)$.

A subset A of {0,1,...,n} is said to be a 2-additive basis for {1,2,...,n} if each j in {1,2,...,n} can be written as j=x+y, x,y in A, x<=y. If we pick each integer in {0,1,...,n} independently with probability p=p_n tending to 0, thus…

Consider the following game: You are given two indistinguishable envelopes, each containing money. One contains twice as much as the other. You may pick one envelope and keep the money it contains. Having chosen an envelope, you are given…

In this article, a new method for characterizing nontransitive dice is de- scribed. This new method is then used to describe the "Nontransitive Identities" (NI) that are possible for 3 dice with 3, 4 and 5 sides each as well as for 5 dice…

In 2015 Zhi-Wei Sun proposed the conjecture that any integer $n > 1$ admits a partition $n = x + y$ with integers $x, y >0$ such that $x + ny$ and $x^2 + ny^2$ are simultaneously prime. To approach this conjecture we use the method of…

Let $T$ be an $n\times n$ random matrix, such that each diagonal entry $T_{i,i}$ is a continuous random variable, independent from all the other entries of $T$. Then for every $n\times n$ matrix $A$ and every $t\ge0$ $$…

Denote by $\mathbb{N}$ and $\mathbb{P}$ the set of all positive integers and prime numbers, respectively. Let $\mathbb{P}=\{p_1<p_2<\dots <p_n<\dots\}$, where $p_n$ is the $n$-th prime number. For $k\in\mathbb{N}$ we recursively define…

We consider random Cayley digraphs of order $n$ with uniformly distributed generating set of size $k$. Specifically, we are interested in the asymptotics of the probability such a Cayley digraph has diameter two as $n\to\infty$ and…

A nonempty finite set of positive integers A is relatively prime if gcd(A) = 1 and it is relatively prime to n if gcd(A [ fng) = 1. The number of nonempty subsets of A which are relatively prime to n is \Phi(A, n) and the number of such…

Given a finite nonempty sequence of integers S, by grouping adjacent terms it is always possible to write it, possibly in many ways, as S = X Y^k, where X and Y are sequences and Y is nonempty. Choose the version which maximizes the value…

We give a simple statistical proof of a binomial identity, by evaluating the Laplace transform of the maximum of n independent exponential random variables in two different ways. As a by product, we obtain a simple proof of an interesting…