English
Related papers

Related papers: The Ant on a Rubber Rope Paradox

200 papers

We present a resolution of the celebrated "Surprise Exam Paradox". We argue that if the surprise exam story is analyzed using the exact same meaning of the notion of "surprise" as is dictated by the story itself, then no paradox arises.

History and Overview · Mathematics 2014-12-03 Tahl Nowik

A rope is a non-singular embedding of a closed interval into R^3, which sends the ends of the interval to some fixed points A and B such that |AB|=1. A rope is short if its length is less than 3. The main result of the paper is that the…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2016-09-07 Jacob Mostovoy

Numerical simulations indicate that there exist conformations of the unknot, tied on a finite piece of rope, entangled in such a manner, that they cannot be disentangled to the torus conformation without cutting the rope. The simplest…

Computational Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 P. Pieranski , S. Przybyl , A. Stasiak

The primary objective of this note is to revisit the two envelope problem and propose a simple resolution. It is argued that the paradox arises from the ambiguity associated with the money content $x of the chosen envelope. When X=x is…

Methodology · Statistics 2013-01-03 Aris Spanos

In this report, we introduce the elephant random walk on the triangular lattice over $R^2$ incorporating directions by extending the model developed in \cite{baur2016elephant}. We study the behavior of the walk by finding the appropriate…

Probability · Mathematics 2026-03-17 Rohit Chaudhuri

Quantum effects and, in particular, entanglement are by now widely recognized in all areas of physics and related fields. However, we feel that the precise notion of entanglement---though mathematically well-defined---still generates…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2013-08-15 Kedar S. Ranade , Kaled Dechoum

We investigate random walks on a lattice with imperfect traps. In one dimension, we perturbatively compute the survival probability by reducing the problem to a particle diffusing on a closed ring containing just one single trap. Numerical…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-24 Timo Aspelmeier , Jérôme Magnin , Willi Graupner , Uwe C. Täuber

In this article we consider transient random walks on HNN extensions of finitely generated groups. We prove that the rate of escape w.r.t. some generalised word length exists. Moreover, a central limit theorem with respect to the…

Probability · Mathematics 2021-01-01 Lorenz A. Gilch

In this paper, a solution to Zeno's paradox of motion was offered and a possible, based on observations and empirical viewpoint, interpretation. A gedanken experiment was proposed in accordance to our empirical and experimental paradigm,…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-09-16 Manuel A. B. Bache , Jorge Hernandez-Contreras

Well known Simpson's paradox is puzzling and surprising for many, especially for the empirical researchers and users of statistics. However there is no surprise as far as mathematical details are concerned. A lot more is written about the…

Other Statistics · Statistics 2018-04-24 Priyantha Wijayatunga

Exploration and trapping properties of random walkers that may evanesce at any time as they walk have seen very little treatment in the literature, and yet a finite lifetime is a frequent occurrence, and its effects on a number of random…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2013-06-19 S. B. Yuste , E. Abad , Katja Lindenberg

The ropelength of a knot is the minimum contour length of a tube of unit radius that traces out the knot in three dimensional space without self-overlap, colloquially the minimum amount of rope needed to tie a given knot. Theoretical upper…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2021-10-27 Alexander R. Klotz , Matthew Maldonado

The two envelopes paradox is discussed. By calculating the conditional probability, we arrive at a conditional expectations which differs from existing results.

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability · Physics 2012-06-22 R. A. Vazquez

For a knot or link K, let L(K) be the ropelength of K and Cr(K) be the crossing number of K. In this paper, we show that there exists a constant a>0 such that L(K) is bounded above by a Cr(K) ln^5 (Cr(K)) for any knot K. This result shows…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2009-12-18 Yuanan Diao , Claus Ernst , Attila Por , Uta Ziegler

A classical two-stranded rope can be made by twisting two identical strands together under strain. Despite being conceptually simple, the contact-equations for helically twisted identical strands have only been solved within the last 20…

Popular Physics · Physics 2023-09-26 Kasper W. Olsen

This paper addresses the problem of determining the distance between two regular languages. It will show how to expand Jaccard distance, which works on finite sets, to potentially-infinite regular languages. The entropy of a regular…

Formal Languages and Automata Theory · Computer Science 2016-02-26 Austin J. Parker , Kelly B. Yancey , Matthew P. Yancey

Ants are known to be able to find paths of minimal length between the nest and food sources. The deposit of pheromones while they search for food and their chemotactical response to them has been proposed as a crucial element in the…

Populations and Evolution · Quantitative Biology 2011-03-09 M. Vela-Pérez , M. A. Fontelos , J. J. L. Velázquez

We describe several configurations of clasped ropes which are balanced and thus critical for the Gehring ropelength problem of arXiv:math.DG/0402212.

Differential Geometry · Mathematics 2007-05-23 John M. Sullivan , Nancy C. Wrinkle

In this paper, we study a probabilistic reinforcement-learning model for ants searching for the shortest path(s) between their nest and a source of food. In this model, the nest and the source of food are two distinguished nodes $N$ and $F$…

Probability · Mathematics 2023-10-03 Daniel Kious , Cécile Mailler , Bruno Schapira

The avoidability, or unavoidability of patterns in words over finite alphabets has been studied extensively. A word (pattern) over a finite set is said to be unavoidable if, for all but finitely many words, there exists a morphism mapping…

Formal Languages and Automata Theory · Computer Science 2019-07-16 Paul Sauer