Related papers: Hitting a prime by rolling a die with infinitely m…

For a positive integer $n$, we denote by $F(n)$ the distance from $n$ to the nearest prime number. We prove that every sufficiently large positive integer $N$ can be represented as the sum $N=n_1+n_2$, where $$ F(n_i) \geqslant (\log…

Given a large positive integer $N$, how quickly can one construct a prime number larger than $N$ (or between $N$ and 2N)? Using probabilistic methods, one can obtain a prime number in time at most $\log^{O(1)} N$ with high probability by…

We study a game in which one keeps flipping a coin until a given finite string of heads and tails occurs. We find the expected number of coin flips to end the game when the ending string consists of at most four maximal runs of heads or…

Each of two players, by turns, rolls a dice several times accumulating the successive scores until he decides to stop, or he rolls an ace. When stopping, the accumulated turn score is added to the player account and the dice is given to his…

We continue the exploration of a question of dice relabeling posed by Gallian and Rusin: Given $n$ dice, each labeled 1 through $m$, how many ways are there to relabel the dice without changing the frequencies of the possible sums? We…

A casino offers the following game. There are three cups each containing a die. You are being told that the dice in the cups are all the same, but possibly nonstandard. For a bet of \$1, the game master shakes all three cups and lets you…

It is proven that, in any given base, there are infinitely many palindromic numbers having at most six prime divisors, each relatively large. The work involves equidistribution estimates for the palindromes in residue classes to large…

We create a simple test for distinguishing between sets of primes and random numbers using just the sum-of-digits function. We find that the sum-of-the-digits of prime numbers does not have an equal probability of being odd or even. The…

We consider $n$-sided dice whose face values lie between $1$ and $n$ and whose faces sum to $n(n+1)/2$. For two dice $A$ and $B$, define $A \succ B$ if it is more likely for $A$ to show a higher face than $B$. Suppose $k$ such dice…

A generalized $N$-sided die is a random variable $D$ on a sample space of $N$ equally likely outcomes taking values in the set of positive integers. We say of independent $N$ sided dice $D_i, D_j$ that $D_i$ beats $D_j$, written $D_i \to…

Recent results of Bourgain and Shparlinski imply that for almost all primes $p$ there is a multiple $mp$ that can be written in binary as $mp= 1+2^{m_1}+ \cdots +2^{m_k}, \quad 1\leq m_1 < \cdots < m_k,$ with $k=66$ or $k=16$, respectively.…

We consider various probabilistic games with piles for one player or two players. In each round of the game, a player randomly chooses to add $a$ or $b$ chips to his pile under the condition that $a$ and $b$ are not necessarily positive. If…

We identify a new type of paradoxical behavior in dice, where the sum of independent rolls produces a deceptive sequence of dominance relations. We call these ``anti-inductive dice". Consider a game with two players and two non-identical…

An $n$-sided die is an $n$-tuple of positive integers. We say that a die $(a_1,\dots,a_n)$ beats a die $(b_1,\dots,b_n)$ if the number of pairs $(i,j)$ such that $a_i>b_j$ is greater than the number of pairs $(i,j)$ such that $a_i<b_j$. We…

We obtain an upper bound for the distribution of primes in the form $n^4 + k$ up to $x$, averaged over $k$ with small square-full part. As a corollary, we show that for almost all $k$, there is an expected amount of primes in the form $n^4…

Flip a coin repeatedly, and stop whenever you want. Your payoff is the proportion of heads, and you wish to maximize this payoff in expectation. This so-called Chow-Robbins game is amenable to computer analysis, but while simple-minded…

Consider $n$ independent, biased coins, each with a known probability of heads. Presented with an ordering of these coins, flip (i.e., toss) each coin once, in that order, until we have observed both a *head* and a *tail*, or flipped all…

In this paper, a matrix is said to be prime if the row and column of this matrix are both prime numbers. We establish various necessary and sufficient conditions for developing matrices into the sum of tensor products of prime matrices. For…

A generalized $N$-sided die is a random variable $D$ on a sample space of $N$ equally likely outcomes taking values in the set of positive integers. We say of independent $N$ sided dice $D_i, D_j$ that $D_i$ beats $D_j$, written $D_i \to…

A prime sieve is an algorithm that finds the primes up to a bound $n$. We say that a prime sieve is incremental, if it can quickly determine if $n+1$ is prime after having found all primes up to $n$. We say a sieve is compact if it uses…